Eleanor Cameron was born on March 23, 1912, in Canada, to Henry and Florence Butler. Cameron attended the University of California and the Art Center School in Los Angeles, and worked in the Los Angeles Public Library and with several advertising agencies before launching a writing career. She married Jan Stuart Cameron in 1934. Their son David inspired her to write the science fiction novel The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet and its sequels. Her time fantasy, The Court of the Stone Children, won the National Book Award in 1974, and A Room Made of Windows garnered the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in 1971. Several of the Julia Redfern novels have been recognized as American Library Association Notable Books. Cameron's The Green and Burning Tree: On the Writing and Enjoyment of Children's Books (1962) is considered a major critical work in its field.

Cameron lives in Pebble Beach, California...