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Robert Leslie Conly (January 111918 - March 51973), better known by his pen name, Robert C. O'Brien, was an author and journalist for National Geographic. He was the third of five children from a well-educated Irish-Catholic family. He was listed as 4-F during World War II, largely on physical grounds, as he tended to be ill as a child, though there were psychological grounds as well, as he had a mental breakdown in his early adulthood. He had an interest in both music and literature and studied for a time at Juilliard, but went on to receive his Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Rochester. He then went on to journalism and writing, and married Sarah McCaslin in 1943. This marriage lasted until his death thirty years later.
He is best known for writing children's books under his pseudonym. In all there were four of these: The Silver Crown (1968); Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971), which received the 1972 Newbery Medal; A Report from Group 17 (1972); and Z for Zachariah (1975), which was published posthumously, after his death at the age of 55, and received a 1976 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Juvenile Mystery.
In 1982, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH was made into an animated film, The Secret of NIMH. The movie was based on the book. His daughter, Jane Leslie Conly, later published two sequels to Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Racso and the Rats of NIMH (1986) and R.T., Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH (1990).
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