American novelist Josephine Lawrence was born in Newark, NJ, in 1892. She graduated from Newark High School and then attended New York University. Upon graduation (with a degree in English), she took a job with the Newark "Sunday Call" newspaper, and eventually became editor of the household service department and the children's page.

She began her writing career with children's books, turning out more than 30--many of them anonymously--and writing a children's radio series, "The Man in the Moon", before writing her first adult novel. She had a reputation as an intensely private person, and avoided publicity--such as press interviews for her books--at all costs. Even her publishers didn't know much about her background, as she refused all requests for information. Several of her books have been turned into films and episodes of anthology series during the "Golden Age of Television" in the 1950s.

She died in New York City in 1978.

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Josephine Lawrence

Writer