15 Facts About Jane Yolen

Jane Hyatt Yolen was born on February 11,1939 and is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books.

Jane Yolen is the author or editor of more than 400 books, of which the best known is The Devil's Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella.

Jane Yolen has collaborated on works with all three of her children, most extensively with Adam Stemple.

Jane Hyatt Yolen was born on February 11,1939, at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.

Jane Yolen is the first child of Isabell Berlin Yolen, a psychiatric social worker who became a full-time mother and homemaker upon Yolen's birth, and Will Hyatt Yolen, a journalist who wrote columns at the time for New York newspapers, and whose family emigrated from Ukraine to the United States.

When Jane Yolen was barely one year old, the family moved to California to accommodate Will's new job working for Hollywood film studios, doing publicity on films such as American Tragedy and Knut Rockne.

Jane Yolen attended PS 93, where she enjoyed writing and singing, and became friends with future radio presenter Susan Stamberg.

Jane Yolen engaged writing by creating a newspaper for her apartment with her brother that she sold for five cents a copy.

Jane Yolen was accepted to Music and Art High School.

Jane Yolen's family moved to a ranch house in Westport, Connecticut, where she attended Bedford Junior high for ninth grade, and then Staples High School.

Jane Yolen received a BA from Smith College in 1960 and a master's degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts in 1978.

Jane Yolen's first published book was Pirates in Petticoats, which she sold on her 22nd birthday, February 11,1961.

Jane Yolen has co-written two books with her son, the writer and musician Adam Stemple, Pay the Piper and Troll Bridge, both part of the Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tale series.

Jane Yolen wrote lyrics for the song "Robin's Complaint," recorded on the 1994 album Antler Dance by Stemple's band Boiled in Lead.

Jane Yolen owns a house in Scotland, where she lives for a few months each year.