Stories of My Life

1929 Charles is born and dies at three weeks old.

1930 They return to the US on furlough and Elizabeth is born in Richmond, Virginia.

1931 They return to China.

1932 Katherine is born.

1936 Helen is born.

1937 Anne is born. The war with Japan had begun the month before.

1938 Family is evacuated to Virginia.

1939 Family returns to China and becomes friends with Maud Henderson in Shanghai. Spends the summer in Tsing Tao, moves to Ching Kiang in the fall.

1940 Family evacuated at the end of this year, again to Virginia.

1941 Move to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

1945 World War II ends.

1946 Raymond, Mary, and four younger children leave Winston-Salem in order to return to China and are stopped at the last minute. Live for a few months in Montreat, North Carolina, and then move to Richmond, Virginia, until the fall of 1948, when they move to Charles Town, West Virginia. My parents and Helen and Anne move to Winchester, Virginia, in 1950 when there is no hope of returning to China. I go off to King College in Bristol, Tennessee and graduate in 1954.

1954–1955 I teach sixth grade in Lovettsville, Virginia, a community that is the model for Lark Creek in Bridge to Terabithia.

1955–1957 I attend my mother’s alma mater, the General Assembly’s Training School for Lay Workers in Richmond, Virginia (now a part of Union Presbyterian Seminary), where one of my professors suggests I become a writer. I don’t—at least not until she gets me a job writing church school curriculum several years later.

1957–1961 I work in Japan under the Presbyterian Church US Board of World Missions.

1961–1962 I attend Union Seminary in New York City, meet John Paterson, and get married.

1963–1964 I teach at the Pennington School while John is at Princeton Seminary.

June 1964 John Jr. is born. That December Lin arrives from Hong Kong, and I begin to write seriously. In 1966 David is born and in 1968 Mary arrives from the White Mountain Apache reservation.

1966 We move to Takoma Park, Maryland, and Who Am I? written for fifth- and sixth-grade Presbyterians is published.

1973 My first novel, The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, is published.

1974 I discover I have cancer, Lisa Hill dies, Of Nightingales That Weep is published.

1975 We are temporary foster parents.

1976 The Master Puppeteer is published.

1977 It wins the National Book Award, and Bridge to Terabithia is published.

1978 It wins the Newbery, and The Great Gilly Hopkins is published.

1979 It is the Newbery Honor book and wins the National Book Award. We move to Norfolk, Virginia, and my mother dies. Angels and Other Strangers is published.

1980 Jacob Have I Loved is published.

1981 It wins the Newbery, and Gates of Excellence and The Crane Wife are published.

1983 My father dies, and Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom is published.

1985 Come Sing, Jimmy Jo is published.