Emily Cheney Neville was born on December 28, 1919, in Manchester, Connecticut. She attended the Oxford School from 1931 to 1936 and received her bachelor of arts degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1940. More than three decades later she returned to school and received a law degree from Albany Law School in 1976. She has worked as a copywriter, a journalist, a novelist, and a lawyer.

When her own children were young, Neville began writing picture books for them. Although none of these stories were published, an editor suggested that Neville write stories for older children.

Her first book, It's Like This, Cat, grew out of a one-page short story, "Cat and I," that she wrote for a Sunday newspaper supplement. It's Like This, Cat was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1964. Neville says that her stories begin as a scene or conversation in her head, which she develops by...