Writer Eleanor Clymer (1906-2001) was born in New York to Russian immigrant parents. She grew up in the city, but loved the time she spent in her family’s home in the New Jersey countryside. This contrast between city and country life became a common theme in her children’s books. Clymer attended Barnard College and earned a degree in English from the University of Wisconsin in 1928.
Between 1943 and 1983 she published 58 books, including The Trolley Car Family (1947), The Tiny Little House (1964) and Hamburgers – and Ice Cream for Dessert (1975). While many children’s books at the time took place in fantastical worlds and times, her stories – which were often inspired by her own life and family – were grounded in reality. Clymer and her husband moved from the city to Katonah, New York in the 1960s.
