JAN WAHL grew up in North-West Ohio where as a child he played piano on a radio program called The Kiddies Karnival. Next came the creation of traveling magic and puppet shows and shadowplays. Once he appeared at the Toledo Town Hall with the legendary magician Harry Blackstone.
At Cornell University he had the good fortune to take classes with Vladimir Nabokov. In Denmark while on a Fullbright scholarship he was invited by director Carl Theodor Dreyer to be part of the making of the now classic film Ordet. He returned to Denmark to act as scribe to Isak Dinesen (Out of Africa) at the time she was writing her Last Tales. He lived a number of years in Guanajuato, Mexico and resides now in Toledo.
His more than 100 books mostly for children have been illustrated by Norman Rockwell, Maurice Sendak, Uri Shulevitz, Edward Gorey, Feodor Rojankovsky and other notable artists and have been anthologized, animated, and set to music. His awards include the Avery Hopwood, Redbook, Ohioana and Parents Magazine awards as well as the Coretta Scott King and Bologna Youth Critics prizes.