Ruth Krauss

Ruth Krauss (1901–1993) was an American writer of children's books, including The Carrot Seed, and of theatrical poems for adult readers. Many of her books are still in print.

Early life and education

Ruth Ida Krauss was born July 25, 1901, in Baltimore, Maryland to Julius Leopold and Blanche Krauss. Her father was of Hungarian and German Jewish descent and worked in the family business as a furrier. As a child, Ruth had numerous health problems, including the rare autoimmune disorder pemphigus. She began writing and illustrating her own stories while still a child, hand sewing her pages into books.

Ruth went to a local high school but left in 1917 after her sophomore year to focus on the study of art. She enrolled in the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts (now known as the Maryland Institute College of Art). The school's focus on applied arts did not suit her and she left after about a year. Her next stop was a girls camp, Camp Walden in Maine, where she discovered her love for writing; the camp yearbook for 1919 contains her first published piece of writing. After the camp, she spent some time studying violin in the Peabody Institute of Music's preparatory program; she was considered a gifted but undisciplined musician by her teachers.