In an email to the Hamilton community on Nov. 1, President David Wippman announced the death of Natalie Babbitt:
I write to share the sad news that children’s book author and illustrator Natalie Babbitt died yesterday at her home in Connecticut. She was 84.
Mrs. Babbitt was the author of Tuck Everlasting, which was published in 1975 when her husband, Samuel Fisher Babbitt, served as the president of Kirkland College. “She once said that her ambition was just to leave a little scratch on the rock,” Mr. Babbitt said. “I think she did that with Tuck Everlasting.” The book won recognition from the American Library Association and was adapted into two movies and a Broadway play.
“I write for children because I am interested in fantasy and the possibilities for experience of all kinds before the time of compromise,” Mrs. Babbitt said. “I believe that children are far more perceptive and wise than American books give them credit for being.”
On behalf of the extended Hamilton and Kirkland communities, I extend our sympathies to the Babbitt family.
