John Rowe Townsend (19 May 1922 – 24 March 2014) was a British children's writer and children's literature scholar. His best-known children's novel is The Intruder, which won a 1971 Edgar Award. His best-known academic work is a reference series, Written for Children: An Outline of English Children's Literature (1965),"Written for Children (1965): ...". Fantastic Fiction (fantasticfiction.co.uk). Retrieved 2014-03-27.  Without change in title date (1965), the text concerns a "revised and updated edition", probably that of May 1996, perhaps with 2003 postscript ("Edition: 6 Sub" at Amazon). the definitive work of its time on the subject.Hunt, Peter (1990). An Introduction to Children's Literature. Routledge. p. 57.
