Meindert DeJong (1906 - 1991) was born in the Netherlands and his family emigrated to the United States when he was a boy. He initially struggled there, his family was very poor and he was bullied for being an immigrant. He started writing, in part, because a local librarian suggested he had potential to be a good writer. Before this he held a wide variety of jobs ranging from gravedigger to professor. He was a prolific writer with large numbers of award winning books.