Natalie Babbitt (1932-2016) was an American writer and illustrator of books for children, and the author of one of the most beloved and quietly profound novels ever written for young readers.
Born Natalie Zane Moore in Dayton, Ohio, she trained as an illustrator at Smith College, drew before she wrote, and entered publishing illustrating verse by her husband, Samuel Babbitt, before an editor suggested she try the words herself.
Her novels include The Search for Delicious, Kneeknock Rise, a Newbery Honor book, and The Eyes of the Amaryllis, but Tuck Everlasting, published in 1975, is her monument: the story of ten-year-old Winnie Foster, who stumbles on the Tuck family and the hidden spring that has made them immortal, and must decide, pursued by a sinister man in a yellow suit, whether living forever is a blessing or a trap. Gentle, exact and unafraid of its central question, it has never been out of print, has been filmed twice and staged as a Broadway musical, and is routinely named among the great American children's books; Anne Tyler called it honest enough to admit that death gives life its meaning, a rare thing to say to children at all, let alone this beautifully.
Babbitt also illustrated the Small Poems collections of Valerie Worth, and remained a wry, unsentimental essayist on children's literature all her life.
