Jean Guttery Fritz, the only child of American missionaries, was born on November 16, 1915, in Hankow, China.

The family lived in China until the mid1920s, when revolution made it too dangerous for foreigners to remain. Fritz kept a childhood journal in which she copied her favorite passages from books and poems and recorded her thoughts about life in China. This journal became an important source for Homesick, the autobiographical story of her years in China.

Fritz decided early in life to pursue a writing career. She studied English literature at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. After graduation, hoping to find an outlet for her writing skills, she enrolled in an advertising course at Columbia University in New York City. But she disliked the advertising business because it seemed dishonest, and in 1939 she went to work for the Silver Burdett Company, textbook publishers.

Her career...