Author jean fritz biography

Jean Guttery Fritz (November 16, 1915 – May 14, 2017) was an American children's writer best known for American biography and history.
Jean Guttery Fritz was an American children's writer best known for American biography and history.
She worked as a research assistant, a children's librarian, and a teacher before publishing her first book in 1954--a picture book about cats titled Fishhead.

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Jean Fritz

The Cabin Faced West

3.91 avg rating — 3,610 ratings — published 1958 — 40 editions

Homesick: My Own Story
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3.87 avg rating — 2,912 ratings — published 1982 — 37 editions

And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?
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3.94 avg rating — 1,377 ratings — published 1973 — 24 editions

What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?
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3.88 avg rating — 1,185 ratings — published 1976 — 26 editions

The Great Little Madison

3.74 avg rating — 948 ratings — published 1989 — 21 editions

Alexander Hamilton: the Outsider
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3.67 avg rating — 953 ratings — published 2011 — 11 editions

Shh! We're Writing the Constitution

3.86 avg rating — 781 ratings — published 1987 — 23 editions

Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?
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3.91 avg rating — 703 ratings — published 1977 — 16 editions

The Double Life of Pocahontas

3.46 avg rating — 764 ratings — published 1983 — 24 editi

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Jean (Guttery) Fritz (1915-) Biography

Born 1915, in Hankow, China; moved to United States c. 1928; Education: Wheaton College, A.B., 1937; attended Columbia University. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, traveling.

Addresses

Agent—Gina MacCoby Literary Agency, 1123 Broadway, Ste. 1010, New York, NY 10010.

Career

Writer of historical biographies and novels for young people. Silver Burdett Co., New York, NY, research assistant, 1937-41; Dobbs Ferry Library, Dobbs Ferry, NY, children's librarian, 1955-57; Jean Fritz Writers' Workshops, Katonah, NY, founder and instructor, 1962-70; Board of Co-operative Educational Service, Westchester County, NY, teacher, 1971-73; Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, faculty member, summer, 1980-82. Lecturer.

Honors Awards

New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year citations, 1973, for And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?, 1974, for Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?, 1975, for Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?, 1976, for What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?, 1981, for Traitor: The Case of Benedict A

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"History isn't boring, once you get to know the people," says children's author Jean Fritz. "In my writing, I give people their place." In the last fifty years Fritz has written about many of the major figures in U.S. history, from Benjamin Franklin to Harriet Beecher Stowe to Teddy Roosevelt.

Fritz worries that children do not find history interesting because there is too much emphasis on memorizing facts. "You have to learn it all factually," she says, "but you have to feel it, too. So you teach about how Mrs. Madison took down a portrait of Washington, cut it out of the frame and saved it before the British burned the White House."

These are the kinds of stories Fritz includes in her biographies and histories. Shh, We're Writing the Constitution captures the personalities of the Founding Fathers and the difficulties they faced as they met in Philadelphia in the hot summer of 1786 to draft the constitution. In And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?, Fritz helps readers to visualize a blueprint of Boston as it existed in 1775, and takes them along with the patriot from the be