Jean Fritz was born on November 16th in Hankow, China, the daughter of a minister and missionary. She returned to the United States at the age of thirteen. She received as A.B. degree in 1937 from Wheaton College and studied at Columbia University. She worked as a teacher, research assistant, and children's librarian. She founded the Jean Fritz Writer's Workshops and taught writing from 1961-1969. She published her first book, Bunny Hopewell's First Spring, in 1954. She received an American Book Award, Boston Globe Horn Book Honor, and a Newbery Honor for her autobiography, Homesick: My Own Story, in 1983. Fritz is considered one of the best writers of historical biographies and novels for young people. Some of her latest informative, entertaining biographies are Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers, You Want to Vote, Lizzie Stanton?, Just a Few Words Mr. Lincoln, and Why Not, Lafayette?.
