Jean Craighead George was born in Washington, D.C., to an entomologist father, Frank C. Craighead, and a storytelling mother, Carolyn Johnson Craighead. George and her twin brothers, John and Frank, who are now ecologists, were raised in an atmosphere designed to foster an early acquaintanceship with nature. Birds and animals were allowed to share their living quarters, and the family made many field trips and nature excursions.

George earned a B.A. degree in 1941 from Pennsylvania State University, where she studied science, and English under the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Theodore Roethke. After graduation she attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she studied art, and the University of Michigan. In 1944 she married John L. George. Together they strove to introduce their three children--Carolyn Laura, John Craighead, and Thomas Lothar--to nature in much the same way as her parents had their children. George's first six books, which...