Jan Wahl was born on April 1st in Toledo, Ohio and raised in Northwest Ohio on a farm. He originally wanted to write music and took piano lessons for eleven years. He loved to write when he was young and produced his own traveling puppet show in the fourth grade. Wahl received a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University and a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Michigan in 1958. He was awarded a Fulbright fellow in Folklore and Folk Literature and studied at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. 

His first book, Pleasant Fieldmouse was submitted sixteen times before being sold and illustrated by Maurice Sendak.Wahl has now published more than 100 titles. Several of his books have been set to music and How the Children Stopped the Wars (1983) was turned into an opera.

Wahl lives in Toledo, Ohio.