Corinne Willis

around 1966

CORINNE WILLIS was born and brought up in Buffalo, New York. After receiving there her B.A. degree from D'Youville College and her M.A. from St. Louis University, she taught English in a Buffalo senior high school. During World War II she married Norman Willis of the R.A.F. When the war was over they made their home in Lytham, Lancashire, England, where their son Peter was born.

The severe housing shortage in England decided them return to Buffalo. With her mother keeping house for them, Mrs. Willis rejoined the school department, this time as a librarian. She loved the new work though she had to take hours and hours of collage studies to qualify. What she enjoyed most were the courses on literature for young people.

Now Peter has grown up and is an engineering student at Syracuse University. Mrs. Willis has never changed in her enthusiasm for teen-age books, and she finds most satisfaction in introducing boys and girls to books they will enjoy. Nothing could be more exciting than that - unless it will be the sight of someone borrowing a book with the name Corinne Willis on the cover.

Mrs. Willis says she hopes that The Ivory Cage is more than another run-of-the-mill high-school romance and that Nora is sensitive and complex enough to seem like a real girl.

Author's Personal Comments

"

When I was seven years old I discovered the magic of the printed page; when I was nine I discovered the magic of the blank page which could be filled with any story I invented.

It was only after I entered D'Youville College, however, that I really learned to write and saw some of my works in print in the college quarterly. It was a heady experience. After I had taken mt M.A. degree at St. Louis University, I enrolled in a short-story course at the University of Buffalo and at the end of the semester sold my first short story for the magnificent sum of $8.00.

Obviously I had to find some other way of earning a living, so for years I taught high school English and loved it. Most of my life now was filled with young people and their problems, with lesson plans and themes. I still found time to write and sell light verse and an occasional short story, but never attempted anything more sustained that that.

Then came World War II and one Norman Willis, Bill for short, was sent to Buffalo to take charge of an RAF depot. We were married before he returned to England. When the war ended I joined him in Lytham, Lancashire, a little town in the north of England. Here our son Peter was born. Because we felt that Peter would have a brighter future in America, we decided when he was a year old to return to Buffalo, my home town.

My teaching position was no longer open, but a librarian was needed in one of the high schools. Here was the combination I liked best - young people and books. However, to qualify for the position I had to study library science. For years I had no time to write at all, but i did have the opportunity to study the reading tastes of students. Now I knew the sort of book I wanted to produce if I ever had sufficient leisure to do so.

Finally life has settled down to an even keel. I am a librarian of Genesee-Humboldt Junior High School in Buffalo. Bill is established as an insurance broker. Peter is at Syracuse University studying electrical engineering. My mother is our faithful housekeeper, freeing me to do what I have always dreamed of doing. At long last I shall see my name on the cover of a book."