About The Author
ZILPHA KEATLEY SNYDER
“When I look back to the beginning, at least as far back as memory will take me, I see mostvividly animals and games and books.”--Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Zilpha Keatley Snyder was born during the Depression of the 1930s and spent her childhood in rural California. Her father, who had spent his own youth on a cattle ranch, established the family in the country where they could have a garden and animals. Though she can remember the hardships that characterized the Depression, including the ever-present threat of unemployment, she recalls more vividly the life she spent with books and her own powerful imagination. She brought the stories she read in literature and the Bible to her own room, her own yard, her own world--re-enacting them in glorious detail.
By age four, Snyder was an accomplished reader, devouring anything in print--from children’s books to newspapers. Her mother, too, filled the home with stories, most of them true, and Snyder claims to have discovered her future occupation before reaching high school.
Always a strong student, Snyder enrolled at Whittier College, a small liberal arts school in Southern California, after completing high school. It was at Whittier that she met her husband, Larry Snyder, whom she married on June 18, 1950. The couple moved around a great deal during the years of World War II, and they had three children.
Although Snyder knew that she wanted to become a writer, she became a teacher of young adults first until she could find the time to devote to writing. During her work with young people, Snyder realized that she was drawn to the wonder of childhood. While she acknowledges that many authors do not consider the age of their audience as they are composing their works, Snyder consciously writes most of her books for children. By writing for young people, she claims, she is able to share the optimism, curiosity, and boundless possibility that characterizes youth.
Her first novel, Season of Ponies, was published in 1964, and she has not stopped writing since. The Egypt Game was her fourth novel, published in 1967 by Atheneum books. It received a Newbery Honor, as did The Headless Cupid (1971) and The Witches of Worm (1972). Mrs. Snyder is the author of over 40 books, and she has received countless awards since she began her career.
She has spent much of her time over the past two decades writing novels and traveling the globe with her husband. She looks forward to continuing both for a long time.
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