Jean Craighead George was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in a family of naturalists. She attended Pennsylvania State University, graduating with degrees in English and science. In the 1940s she was a member of the White House press corps and a reporter for The Washington Post. George has written over 60 books among them My Side of the Mountain, a 1960 Newbery Honor Book, and its 1990 sequel On the Far Side of the Mountain. Julie of the Wolves was also a Newberry Medal winner. In 1991, Ms. George became the first winner of the School Library Media Section of the New York Library Association's Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature, which was presented to her for the "consistent… superior quality" of her work.