Joan Aiken
Writers

Joan Aiken Net Worth

Joan Aiken was a beloved English writer who specialized in writing supernatural thrillers and charmingly quirky children’s novels. She was honored with the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire MBE, Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and Edgar Allan Poe Award for her contributions to literature. Born to British writer Conrad Aiken, Joan developed a passion for story-telling from a young age. She wrote 92 novels, 27 of which were for adults, as well as plays, short stories and poems. Her most famous work, ‘The Wolves of the Willoughby Chase’, was a great success and she went on to write a series based on it.
Joan Aiken is a member of Writers

Age, Biography and Wiki

Who is it? Writer
Birth Day September 04, 1924
Birth Place Rye, East Sussex, England, United States
Age 96 YEARS OLD
Died On 4 January 2004 (2004-01-05) (aged 79)\nPetworth, Sussex
Birth Sign Libra
Occupation Writer
Period 1955–2004
Genre Alternative history, children's literature, supernatural fiction
Notable works The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Wolves Chronicles)
Notable awards Guardian Prize 1969

💰 Net worth: $8 Million (2024)

Joan Aiken, a renowned writer in the United States, has an estimated net worth of $8 Million in 2024. She has made a significant impact in the literary world with her impressive body of work. Joan Aiken is best known for her exceptional storytelling skills and her ability to captivate readers with her imaginative narratives. Her vast experience and immense talent have earned her both critical acclaim and financial success, contributing to her impressive net worth. As a prolific writer, Aiken has left a lasting legacy in the literary landscape, enchanting audiences with her compelling stories for generations to come.

Biography/Timeline

1924

Aiken was born in Mermaid Street in Rye, Sussex, on 4 September 1924. Her father was the American Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Conrad Aiken (1889–1973). Her older brother was the Writer and research Chemist John Aiken (1913–1990), and her older sister was the Writer Jane Aiken Hodge (1917–2009). Their mother, Canadian-born Jessie MacDonald (1889–1970), was a Master's graduate from Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jessie and Conrad's marriage was dissolved in 1929, and Jessie married the English Writer Martin Armstrong in 1930. Conrad Aiken went on to marry twice more. Together with her brother John and her sister Jane, Joan Aiken wrote Conrad Aiken Remembered (1989), a short appreciation of their father.

1936

Aiken was taught at home by her mother until the age of twelve and from 1936 to 1940 at Wychwood School for girls in Oxford. She did not attend university. Writing stories from an early age, she finished her first full-length novel when she was sixteen and had her first short story for adults accepted for publication when she was seventeen. In 1941 her first children's story was broadcast on the BBC's Children's Hour.

1943

Aiken worked for the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in London between 1943 and 1949. In 1945 she married Ronald George Brown, a Journalist who was also working at UNIC. They had two children before he died in 1955.

1955

After her husband's death, Aiken joined the magazine Argosy, where she worked in various editorial capacities and, she later said, learned her trade as a Writer. The magazine was one of many in which she published short stories between 1955 and 1960. During this time she also published her first two collections of children's stories and began work on a children's novel, initially titled Bonnie Green, which was later published in 1962 as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. By then she was able to write full-time from home, producing two or three books a year for the rest of her life, mainly children's books and thrillers, as well as many articles, introductions and talks on children's literature and on the work of Jane Austen.

1969

Some of her books focus on spine-chilling or supernatural events, including The Windscreen Weepers (stories, 1969), The Shadow Guests (novel, 1980), A Whisper in the Night (stories, 1982), and A Creepy Company (stories, 1993, with variant contents in its US and UK editions). She set her adult supernatural novel, The Haunting of Lamb House, at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories.

1971

Aiken's series of children's books about Arabel and Mortimer were illustrated by Quentin Blake. Others were illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski and Pat Marriott. Pieńkowski won the foremost British award for children's book illustration, the Greenaway Medal, for The Kingdom Under the Sea and Other Stories (Jonathan Cape, 1971), a collection of "unique fairy tales from Eastern Europe and Russia" retold by Aiken.

1976

Aiken married the New York landscape Painter and Teacher Julius Goldstein in 1976. They divided their time between her home, the Hermitage in Petworth, Sussex, and New York. He died in 2001.

2013

Many of Aiken's most popular books, including the Wolves Chronicles (also known as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase series or the James III series), are set in an elaborate alternative history of Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution, but supporters of the House of Hanover continually agitate against the monarchy. These books also toy with the geography of London, adding a Canal District among other features. Wolves have invaded the country from Europe via the newly built Channel Tunnel. The novels share a varying cast and a variety of interlinked child protagonists – initially Bonnie Green, but subsequently her itinerant friend Simon, Simon's intrepid Cockney friend Dido Twite (the heroine of most of the books), Dido's half-sister Is and Owen Hughes (son of Dido's Royal Navy ally Captain Hughes).

Some Joan Aiken images

About the author

Lisa Scholfield

As a Senior Writer at Famous Net Worth, I spearhead an exceptional team dedicated to uncovering and sharing the stories of pioneering individuals. My passion for unearthing untold narratives drives me to delve deep into the essence of each subject, bringing forth a unique blend of factual accuracy and narrative allure. In orchestrating the editorial workflow, I am deeply involved in every step—from initial research to the final touches of publishing, ensuring each biography not only informs but also engages and inspires our readership.