Clive King, a British author best known for the children's classic Stig of the Dump (1963), died last week at age 94. King served as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve from 1943 to 1946, a globetrotting post that included a stop in Hiroshima shortly after its destruction. King's later career, prior to becoming a full-time writer in 1973, was equally itinerant: he worked for the British Council in Amsterdam, Belfast, Aleppo, Damascus, Beirut, Madras and Dhaka.
King began writing as a child. His first book, Hamid of Aleppo, about the adventures of a Syrian Golden Hamster, was published in 1958. King's other works include The Twenty-Two Letters, The Town that Went South, The Night the Water Came, Me and My Million, Ninny's Boat, The Sound of Propellers, The Seashore People, Snakes and Snakes and several plays for children.
Stig of the Dump (illustrated by Edward Ardizzone) follows Barney, a boy staying with his grandparents in southern England who stumbles upon a chalk pit filled with rubbish. He meets Stig, a caveman who lives in the dump and doesn't speak English. The two manage a friendship without words by hunting, collecting firewood, fixing Stig's den and catching burglars, among other adventures. Stig of the Dump has been adapted for television twice and is often read in schools. It was last published in 2016 by Open Road Media ($11.99, 9781504037709). --Tobias Mutter