Farber, Norma

Norma Holzman was born in August of 1909 in Boston, MA. In 1928, at the age of 18, she married Sidney Farber, then a recent Harvard Medical School graduate . Early in their marriage, the Farbers lived in Europe, where Dr. Farber was continuing his studies. When they returned to the United States, Norma enrolled at Wellesley College and received an A. B. in 1931. From there she went on to obtain an M. A. from Radcliffe in 1932. After years of writing poetry for adults, Farber began penning stories and poetry for children in the 1960s. She is remembered for the variety of her books, which include nonsense verse, instructional stories, and retellings of biblical tales. Her best known work, As I Was Crossing Boston Common, published in 1975, won a National Book Award and a Children's Book Showcase Award. Another of her books published that same year, This Is the Ambulance Leaving the Zoo, was a Junior Literary Guild selection. In addition to her writing, Farber was also an accomplished singer, performing as a soprano in the United States and abroad. She died in 1984 of a vascular disease. Biographical Source: Something About the Author, Vol. 75, p. 56-58

Norma Holzman Farber (1909-1984) was a musician, poet, and author of picture books for children. She earned the Children's Book Showcase Award and the National Book Award, a New York Times Best Illustrated award, and had one title selected for a Junior Literary Guild edition. She received the Premier Prix for singing in 1936, and wrote poetry throughout her life. In the 1960s she began writing stories and poetry for children. Later she remarked that most of her work for chldren focused on the alphabet and on Noah's Flood.