Joan Bodger

Joan Bodger (31 August 1923 – 4 July 2002) was an American writer, storyteller and educator.

Biography Bodger was born Joan Higbee in San Francisco in 1923. During World War II she was a cryptographer in the Signal corps of the Women's Army Corps, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. She married John Charles Bodger in 1947, with whom she had two children, Ian Corfield Bodger and Lucy Stanton Bodger. Their marriage ended in 1963. In 1970, she married Alan Mercer. In 1968, she was director of children's services for the State Library of Missouri, but was fired "after being branded a 'communist pornographer' for publicly supporting an underground newspaper." The next year, Bennett Cerf hired her to work as a children's book editor at Random House.

In 1970, she moved to Toronto. From 1970 to 1975, she was program director of the Mini-Skools day care program in Manitoba and Ontario. She helped found the Toronto Storytellers School and was actively involved with the storytelling community in the city.