author
Nathalia Crane
1913–1998
Celebrated first as a child poetry prodigy, she turned early fame into a long writing life that included both poems and novels. Her work began attracting attention when she was still in grade school, giving her story an unusual spark from the very start.
1 Audiobook
The Janitor's Boy, and Other Poems
by Nathalia Crane
About the author
Born in Brooklyn in 1913, Nathalia Crane became known astonishingly young: her poems were noticed by The New York Sun when she was still a child, and her first collection, The Janitor's Boy, grew out of work she had written at about age ten. That early success made her one of the best-known child poets of her day.
Crane did not remain only a literary curiosity. She went on to build a broader career as an American poet and novelist, publishing additional books over the years and sustaining a writing life well beyond her early fame.
She died on October 22, 1998. What makes her especially memorable is the way her career joins two stories at once: the wonder of a genuine child prodigy and the steadier accomplishment of a writer who kept going after the spotlight of youth had passed.