by Isabelle Holland

Isabelle Holland was born on June 16, 1920, in Basel, Switzerland. As the daughter of a U.S. Foreign Service officer, Holland lived in several different cities while she was growing up. In 1942 she graduated from Tulane University and later began a twenty-five-year career in publishing. In 1967 she published Cecily, her first book, and left her job soon afterward to attend to her writing full-time. Holland has published, in addition to many adult novels, over thirty books for young adults, including The Man without a Face (1972).

Events in History at the Time of the Novel

Boarding school. During the time of the novel, eastern boarding schools such as St. Matthew's were completely isolated environments. The students were expected to eat, sleep, exercise, talk, and play at the school. Even their "free" time was, in reality, quite structured. Such schools...