Jean Guttery Fritz was born on November 16, 1915, in Hankow, China, where her father, Arthur M. Guttery, was a minister and a missionary, working for the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). She spent over a decade in the Far East before returning to the United States, where she was educated at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. After college, Fritz worked for a time as a research assistant for the Silver Burdett Company in New York City. She worked briefly as a librarian in Dobbs Ferry, New York, in the mid-1950s.

Fritz began writing fiction early in life, but it was not until 1954 that she published her first novel, Fish Head. She quickly established her reputation as an excellent writer of books for young adults. Her specialty is historical biography, and she combines meticulous historical research with a lively style appropriate for young audiences, making...