Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (1975)

Author Information

Natalie Babbitt was born July 28th, 1932 in Dayton, Ohio as Natalie Zane Moore. As a child she loved to read and draw. She loved to read fairy tales and myths. Her mother was a landscape and portrait painter. As a child she dreamed of becoming an illustrator. She attended Smith College in 1954 and graduated with a B.A. in Art. She married Samuel Fisher Babbitt and they lived for ten years in Connecticut, Tennessee and later Washington, D.C. They have three children, Christopher, Tom, and Lucy. In 1966 Natalie and her husband collaborated on a children’s book called The Forty-Ninth Magician. They then moved again, heading to Clinton, New York. Her husband took a job as the president of Kirkland College. Natalie continued to draw, but this time started to write her own stories. Her first two books included Dick Foote and the Shark and Phoebe’s Revolt. She also illustrated books for authors, such as Valerie Worth. It was in 1975 that she wrote Tuck Everlasting, a book that “Explores the possibility that endless life may be more of a curse than a blessing” (http://www.ipl.org/). She continues to write and has won numerous awards and recognitions for books, such as a Newberry Honor Medal (2002) for Kneeknock Rise. Today, Natalie Babbitt lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and is a grandmother to three.