Sprague De Camp

Catherine Crook de Camp was born and reared in New York City. Educated at St. Agatha and The Lennox School, she won her Phi Beta Kappa key in her junior year and was graduated from Barnard College Magna Cum Laude. After postgraduate work at Columbia University, she taught high-school English and economics for several years and worked as an Instructor at Temple University for a year.

When on August 12, 1939, she married a young writer named L. Sprague de Camp, she never dreamed that her double major in English and economics would prove the best possible training for a writer's wife. From the earliest days of their marriage, Catherine managed the business side of the writing team of de Camp and de Camp, doing the tax work, publicity work, and the many other jobs needed to keep a writing couple solvent.
Catherine has written books to help people manage their money. The first was the The Money Tree in 1972, which has a charming foreword by the de Camps' long-time friend the late Isaac Asimov; the second Teach Your Child to Manage Money, published by U.S. News & World Report Books is still valued by readers today. She has compiled three anthologies of science fiction stories for young readers: Creatures of the Cosmos; 3,000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction; and Tales Beyond Time.

Catherine has also collaborated with Sprague on numerous books. Their most memorable non-fiction works are: Spirits, Stars, and Spells (a history of magical practices over the centuries); The Day of the Dinosaur; Science Fiction Handbook, Revised; and Dark Valley Destiny: The Life of Robert E. Howard. Among their science fiction collaborations are: The Bones of Zora; The Pixilated Peeress; and Footprints on Sand (a sampling of their science fiction and fantasy works, including many of their poems.)

Catherine belongs to a number of distinguished organizations: The Cum Laude Society; Phi Beta Kappa; the Authors' Guild of America. With Sprague she received the Eighth Drexel Citation for Distinguished Contribution to Literature for Young People.

Catherine and Sprague, still happily married after 60 years, continue to write with no thoughts of retirement in their future.