Barbara Corcoran rose to prominence as a prolific author of problem novels for pre- and early teenagers in the 1970s, when contemporary realistic fiction for adolescents was at its zenith. She has written over sixty novels in nineteen years and has been consistently noted by the periodicals which review children's and young adult books.

Corcoran was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts, on 12 April 1911, to Anna Tuck and John Gilbert Corcoran, a physician. She was an only child, which may have prompted her to make up characters and stories out of the need to occupy herself. She has been writing since childhood and recalls that she "used to start stories on my father's prescription pads. My parents were encouraging, although I think my dad thought I'd probably starve to death."

In 1933 she was graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. degree. In her early twenties she began writing plays...