Catherine Woolley

Catherine Woolley, known also by the pen name Jane Thayer, was an American children's writer. 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. 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 "Ginnie" and "Cath…