Biography
Natalie was born in Dayton, Ohio on July 28, 1932. She spent large amounts of time in her childhood reading myths and fairy tales. Her mother (an amateur landscape and portrait painter) always made sure Natalie had plenty of pencils, paper, and paint. She grew up wanting to be an illustrator and specialized in art at Laurel School in Cleveland, Ohio and at Smith College. Shortly after graduating from college, Natalie married Samuel Fisher Babbitt, an academic administrator, and spent the next ten years in Connecticut, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. raising Christopher (born in 1956), Tom (1958), and Lucy (1960).
In 1966, Natalie and Samuel decided to collaborate on a children's book, The Forty-Ninth Magician, just before moving to Clinton, New York where Mr. Babbitt became the first president of Kirkland College. When her husband became too busy with his new job to continue writing, Natalie decided to try being her own author.
In the beginning of her writing career, Natalie believed she would do best with rhyme so she wrote her first two books, Dick Foote and the Shark and Phoebe's Revolt, in verse. However The Search for Delicious, a long story with roots in fairy tales she read as a child and her next book, was written in prose. Knee-Knock Rise and Goody Hall came shortly after. The Something, a picture book which stemmed from her personal distaste from the dark, came between those two novels.
Since that time, Natalie has illustrated five books for Valarie Worth, four of which are poetry books and have been published together in All the Small Poems. She wrote and illustrated The Devil's Storybook and The Devil's Other Storybook. She also wrote three novels: Tuck Everlasting, The Eyes of the Amaryllis, and Herbert Rowbarge, which was hailed by Publisher's Weekly as "her crowning achievement". Nellie: A Cat on Her Own, Natalie's first full color picture book, was praised in a Booklist review as "a charming fantasy with the same graceful and precise language as Tuck Everlasting. "
Natalie Babbitt is now a grandmother of three who lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
In 1966, Natalie and Samuel decided to collaborate on a children's book, The Forty-Ninth Magician, just before moving to Clinton, New York where Mr. Babbitt became the first president of Kirkland College. When her husband became too busy with his new job to continue writing, Natalie decided to try being her own author.
In the beginning of her writing career, Natalie believed she would do best with rhyme so she wrote her first two books, Dick Foote and the Shark and Phoebe's Revolt, in verse. However The Search for Delicious, a long story with roots in fairy tales she read as a child and her next book, was written in prose. Knee-Knock Rise and Goody Hall came shortly after. The Something, a picture book which stemmed from her personal distaste from the dark, came between those two novels.
Since that time, Natalie has illustrated five books for Valarie Worth, four of which are poetry books and have been published together in All the Small Poems. She wrote and illustrated The Devil's Storybook and The Devil's Other Storybook. She also wrote three novels: Tuck Everlasting, The Eyes of the Amaryllis, and Herbert Rowbarge, which was hailed by Publisher's Weekly as "her crowning achievement". Nellie: A Cat on Her Own, Natalie's first full color picture book, was praised in a Booklist review as "a charming fantasy with the same graceful and precise language as Tuck Everlasting. "
Natalie Babbitt is now a grandmother of three who lives in Providence, Rhode Island.