“I’m one of those very lucky people who absolutely love what they do for a living. There is no career better suited to my eccentricities, strengths, and passions than that of a children’s book author.”

—Mary Pope Osborne

Osborne is one of the few lucky authors who were given the opportunity to bring upon the beauty of childhood in words.

The Life Journey Towards Writing

Motivations of Mary Pope Osborne

I bet you all will agree that childhood is incomplete without the famous Magic Tree Series. Do you know who is behind your favorite stories of Jack and Annie? Yes, that’s right. It’s Mary Pope Osborne. Any literary mind would question about the personality of Mary Pope Osborne and what influenced her to become a writer. As you read through, you will get to know the answers.

If you ask any famous personality, what motivates them to become what they are today-most will relate their dreams and struggle to their background. This is because we are strongly associated with our childhood and family norms.

Whatever we learn and experience at a young age, become embedded in our minds and somehow reflected from our personality at any age. Same goes for Mary Pope Osborne.

Childhood Memories

Mary was born in Oklahoma on 20^th May 1949 to an Army family. Her father was serving as Colonel in the U.S Army. Till the age of fifteen, Mary Pope Osborne had lived at a number of places such as Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Austria because of her father’s postings.

She enjoyed a colorful and adventurous childhood at these places because she was allowed to experience nature and explore the wilds liberally. Mary says that the time she had spent with her siblings while hiking, bike riding, hunting and playing on the coast will always remain fresh in her memory.

After the retirement of her father, the family decided to settle in North Carolina which apparently, brought an end to the adventures of this lively girl. But the passion for traveling made her jaunt to eastern countries where she indulged herself into near death adventures.

Upon returning back to the country, Mary began living a confused life- she did not know her direction and no profession could discover the real self in her. She worked as a waitress, teacher, travel consultant, bartender and medical assistant but none of these professions could satisfy her.

The First Story by Osborne

One day while sitting on a bench, she started writing a story of an eleven year old girl who shared the same playful and happy childhood as her. As her pen scrawled, creativity started to flow out and she succeeded in writing a book captioned: Run, Run Fast as You Can.

This was her first ever written piece which attracted the kids unexpectedly; and it was when Mary Pope Osborne realized that writing truly defines her. We can’t say with certainty how old Mary Pope Osborne was when she began writing but of what we know-she was somewhere in her mid twenties and the decade was of 70’s.