The Family Under The Bridge

Natalie Savage Carlson was an accomplished writer of children’s literature. She was first published at the age of eight by The Baltimore Sunday Sun newspaper and went on to publish 18 works of children’s literature. Carlson studied journalism in college and worked for three years as a newspaper writer for the Long Beach Morning Sun. She then married a naval officer, whose job involved a lot of travel. Carlson lived in Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, and Paris. Befana’s Gift (1969) is set in Italy, The Song of the Lop-Eared Mule (1961) in Spain, and The Tomahawk Family (1960) in South Dakota. The range of locations in her stories reflects Carlson’s own experiences traveling and living around different kinds of people.

Carlson’s books tend to feature warm, loving, and diverse family structures. The Family Under the Bridge focuses on the fatherless Calcet children. The main character in another novel, Ann Aurelia and Dorothy (1968), lives in a foster home. The Happy Orpheline (1957) tells the story of 20 orphaned children living together. Two autobiographical works of Carlson’s—The Half Sisters (1970) and Luvvy and the Girls (1971)—feature a close-knit family, which suggests that Carlson’s works are influenced by her own loving family unit.