Jane Trescott Flory
Born: June 29, 1917, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Vocations: Children’s Book Author, Illustrator
Geographical Connection to Pennsylvania: Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County; Philadelphia; Philadelphia County

Keywords: Far Away Dream; Houghton Mifflin Publishing; It Was a Pretty Good Year; Philadelphia; Philadelphia College of Art; The Great Bamboozlement; Snooty, the Pig Who Was Proud; The Liberation of Clementine Tipton; Whitman Publishing

Abstract: Jane Trescott Flory was born in Wilkes-Barre in 1917. After achieving her degree from the Philadelphia College of Art, she worked as a freelance writer and illustrator of children’s books. Flory was also employed as the director of evening division at Philadelphia College of Art for 16 years. Over her lifetime, Flory wrote and illustrated over 35 books for children, including Snooty, the Pig Who was Proud and The Great Bamboozlement. Jane Flory currently lives in Philadelphia.

Biography:

Jane Trescott Flory was born Jane Trescott in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on June 29, 1917, to Leroy Charles and Hazel Trescott. Educated at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now Philadelphia College of Art), Flory received her college degree in 1939. She began working as a free-lance writer and illustrator of children’s books soon after college, and married artist and college instructor Arthur Leroy Flory on September 29, 1941. Together they had three children: Cynthia Jane, Christine Kate, and Erika Susan. After the death of her husband in 1972, Flory continued her passion for writing and illustrating.

Flory’s first children’s book, Snooty, the Pig Who Was Proud, was published in 1944 by Whitman Publishing. Flory continued to publish books through Whitman and other publishing companies until 1960, when she signed with Houghton Mifflin Publishing. While with Houghton, Flory wrote and illustrated 15 books, each received well by critics. The School Library Journal called Far Away Dream, published in 1968, “A warm and understanding story.” The Liberation of Clementine Tipton is “a delightful story of a ten-year-old tomboy whose father is on the Central Committee… the reader gets a vivid picture of the celebration in Philadelphia in 1876” according to the Philadelphia Bulletin.

Most of Flory’s work is inspired by her time spent in Philadelphia. She began writing It Was a Pretty Good Year (published in 1979) after hearing a childhood friend tell stories about growing up on Reed Street in Philadelphia. Although he found his childhood to be boring and bland, Flory integrated humor and atmosphere into the story, and according to the editor of It Was a Pretty Good Year, captured the “tempo of an early American city – the sights, the smells and the feelings of people freshly immigrated to this new land of opportunity.”

In 1980, Flory remarried Barnett R. Freedman, but kept the name of her first husband. Flory’s last book, The Great Bamboozlement, was published in 1982 by Houghton Press. From the Boston Globe, this story is “a lighthearted, engaging story of a frontier family that sorts out its problems with humor, patience, and love.” Flory worked at the Philadelphia College of Art in Philadelphia as the director of evening division from 1958-1974, all while writing and illustrating. She currently resides in Philadelphia.

Works:

• Snooty, the Pig Who Was Proud. New York: Whitman Publishing, 1944.
• The Hide-Away Ducklings. New York: Grosset, 1946.
• Fanny Forgot. New York: Whitman Publishing, 1946.
• The Lazy Lion. New York: Whitman Publishing, 1949.
• Timothy, the Little Brown Bear. New York: Rand McNally, 1949.
• Mr. Snitzel’s Cookies. New York: Rand McNally, 1950.
• The Pop-up Runaway Train. New York: Avon, 1951.
• Far Away Dream. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1960.
• The Liberation of Clementine Tipton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974.
• The Golden Venture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976.
• It Was a Pretty Good Year. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979.
• The Great Bamboozlement. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982.

Sources:

• “By Jane Flory.” Rev. of The Great Bamboozlement, by Jane Flory. Boston Globe 8 Aug. 1983: 1.
• “Jane Trescott Flory.” The Gale Literary Database: Contemporary Authors Online. 19 Apr. 2002. 1 May 2007. <http://www.galenet.com>.

This biography was prepared by Victoria Schwoebel, Spring 2007.