On Valentine's Day, stories to renew your wows Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Feb. 10, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail By Eleanor Farjeon - - - Two weeks ago, I was casting about for a novel or short-story collection - something sweet - that would be just right for Valentine's Day. Being fond of anniversaries, I hoped there might be some appropriate book from 1921 due for centenary celebration. There was. But Eleanor Farjeon's "Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard" - containing six romantic fairy tales recounted by a wandering minstrel - turned out to be far more than just appropriate. It was magical. Of course, I shouldn't have been surprised since Farjeon (1881-1965) is one of the 20th century's most beloved children's authors, equally adept at verse and prose. "The Little Bookroom," a selection of some of her best stories, received Britain's 1955 Carnegie Medal and, in 1956, was honored with the inaugural Hans Christian Andersen Award. (The book is currently available in the New York Review Children's Collection.) Today, Farjeon tends to be viewed as old-fashioned, "poetic," even sentimental. Still, no one disdains her lyrics to the loveliest of all songs about spring, immortalized in a version sung by Cat Stevens: