Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote for children and adults, publishing both plays and novels. She was born in Manchester, England, on November 24, 1849. Her father, who owned a furniture store, died when she was only four years old. Her mother struggled to keep the family business running while trying to raise five children. Finally, because of the failing Manchester economy, the family sold the store and immigrated to the United States. In 1865 they settled just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. Hoping to offset her family's continuing financial troubles, Burnett began to submit her stories to women's magazines. She was immediately successful. In the late 1860s her stories were published in… nearly every popular American magazine. Burnett helped to support her family with income from the sale of her stories, even saving enough to finance a trip back to England, where she stayed for over a year. In 1879, Burnett published her first stories for children; two of her most popular are A Little Princess and The Secret Garden. In contrast to an extremely successful career, Burnett's personal life held many challenges. Her son Lionel was diagnosed with tuberculosis at age 15, from which he never recovered. His death inspired several stories about dead or dying children. Burnett lived her later years on Long Island, New York. She died in 1924.
Children's book author and illustrator Barbara McClintock was born in Clinton, New Jersey on May 6, 1955. She attended Jamestown College in North Dakota before moving to New York City on the recommendation of Maurice Sendak, whom she called to ask advice about how to become a children's book illustrator. She briefly studied at The Art Students League of New York. Before meeting Jim Henson and illustrating books for his television series Fraggle Rock, she designed characters for television commercials for an animation studio and illustrated textbooks. Her first book, The Heartaches of a French Cat, won the New York Times Best Books Award. She won this award three more times as well as a… Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor award for Dahlia. Her other works include Animal Fables from Aesop, The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle, The Gingerbread Man, Adele and Simon, Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, and The Battle of Luke and Longnose.