Jean E(dna) Karl was born July 29, 1927 in Chicago, Ill. Although an accredited high school teacher, she chose to follow a career in publishing, eventually becoming a children's book editor. Although she agrees that much fictional writing is at least partly autobiographical, she also states that the events that happen to the characters in her books never happened to her. Because of an early interest in science, Karl writes mostly in the science fiction genre for young adults. She stresses not the interplanetary wars so common in the genre, but instead depicts her characters as kind and thoughful.
Biographical Sources: Something About the Author, vols. 34, 122; Something About the Author Autobiography Series, vol. 10.
From the guide to the Jean Karl Papers, 1970-1981, (University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections [clrc])
