Jean Merrill

Jean Merrill (January 27, 1923 – August 2, 2012) was an American writer of children's books and editor, known best for The Pushcart War, a novel published in 1964. She died from cancer at her home in Randolph, Vermont, in 2012, aged 89.

Early life and personal life

Merrill was born on January 27, 1923, in Rochester, New York, to Earl and Elsie Almetta Merrill. She grew up on the shores of Lake Ontario in Webster, New York (now a suburb of Rochester). Merrill received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Theatre in 1944 from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She received her master's degree from Wellesley College in 1945.

Editor

After leaving Wellesley, Merrill was an editor for Scholastic Magazines from 1945 to 1949. She subsequently edited at Literary Cavalcade from 1950 to 1957. Starting in 1952, Merrill held a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Madras in India. Her folklore studies in India would lead her to write a number of stories based on Asian folklore: Shan's Lucky Knife (1960, based on a Burmese folktale), The Superlative Horse (1961, based on a Chinese folktale), and The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars (1992, based on a Japanese tale). From 1965 to 1971, Merrill worked as an editor and consultant at the Publications Division of the Bank Street College of Education.

Writer

Merrill started writing books while working at Literary Cavalcade, including Henry, The Hand-Painted Mouse (1951) and The Woover (1952). Merrill received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1963 for The Superlative Horse.

In 1992, Merrill published The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, based on a 12th-century Japanese tale. True to the original manuscript, whose ending had been lost, the story ends abruptly.

Books had a great impact on Merrill as a child, which motivated her to try to write children's stories that would have a similar effect. Her books often illustrate universal human values serving to resolve conflict.

Most of her books were illustrated by her partner of over 50 years, Ronni Solbert.