Jane Thayer Explained

Jane Thayer
Birth Name:Catherine Woolley
Birth Date:11 August 1904
Birth Place:Chicago, Illinois, US
Death Place:Truro, Massachusetts, US
Occupation:Writer
Education:University of California, Los Angeles
Genre:Children's picture books
Notableworks:The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy

Catherine Woolley (August 11, 1904 – July 23, 2005)[1] known also by the pen name Jane Thayer, was an American children's writer.[2] [3] She is known best for the book The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy, which became the basis of a 1978 animated television special. The special eventually went on to spin-off three sequel specials and a 1980s Saturday Morning cartoon series, The Puppy's Further Adventures.[4] Thayer wrote 86 books for children, many of which (The Blueberry Pie Elf, The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy, The Popcorn Dragon) have become classics. She was so prolific that her editor suggested she publish some of her works under a pen name. Thus, Woolley authored picture books under the name Jane Thayer, her grandmother's name, while writing books for older children and adults under her real name.

Biography

A 1927 graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, she worked as an advertising copywriter and freelance writer in New York City during the late 1920s and early 1930s. From 1933 to 1940, she worked as a copywriter in publicity for the American Radiator & Standard Corporation. She found a job as a desk editor for the Architectural Record and as a production editor for the Society of Automotive Engineers Journal in the early 1940s. By the time Woolley had advanced to the position of public relations writer for the National Association of Manufacturers in New York City, she had also begun writing and publishing children's books. Her debut, I Like Trains, appeared in 1944.

She left her public relations job in 1947 to concentrate full-time on writing, though she occasionally taught classes and led writing workshops. Her many books written under her own name include the "Ginny" and "Cathy" series. As Thayer, she wrote such books as Sandy and the Seventeen Balloons (1955), Quiet on Account of Dinosaur (1964), and Mr. Turtle's Magic Glasses (1971). Her last book for children, Clever Raccoon, came out in 1981. In 1989, The Popcorn Dragon (1953) was reissued. That year she also published her one book for adults, Writing for Children.

The Truro Public Library in her hometown, the seaside village of Truro, Massachusetts, honored her in 1996 by naming its children's room after her, and in 2004, the town of Truro declared her birthday, August 11, to be Catherine Woolley Day.

Works

Gus the Ghost books

Ginnie series

Cathy series

Andy series

Libby series

Other books

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Contemporary Authors Online. 2005. February 24, 2016. Biography in Context. Gale.
  2. News: Catherine Woolley, 100; Wrote 87 Children's Books in 45-Year Span. Los Angeles Times . July 29, 2005.
  3. News: Catherine Woolley Author Dies at 100. . July 28, 2005. Associated Press.
  4. https://books.google.com/books?id=aa0zAwAAQBAJ&dq=Catherine+Woolley++the+puppy+who+wanted+a+boy&pg=PA204 Perlmutter, David. America Toons In: A History of Television Animation

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