Mary Pope Osborne

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Osborne at a book signing at the Phoenix Zoo

Mary Pope Osborne (born May 20, 1949) is a children's author who wrote the Magic Tree House book series for children. She has written more than fifty books for children and teenagers.

Mary Pope Osborne grew up in a military family. Her father, William Pope, was a Colonel in the United States Army, and as such his family frequently moved from one military base to another. By the time she was fifteen, Mary had lived in Oklahoma, Austria, Florida and four different army posts in Virginia and North Carolina. After retiring from the military, Mary's father served as the President of Oak Ridge Military Academy in North Carolina.

Osborne attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the early 1970's and earned a bachelor's degree. She then traveled all over Europe, and spent the first six weeks of her trip living in a cave on the island of Crete. She then joined up with a group of European young people and traveled in rickety vans through sixteen Asian countries, including Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal.

After returning to the United States, she worked as an acting teacher, waitress, travel agent, window dresser, and medical assistant before deciding to become an author. Her first book, Run, Run, As Fast As You Can, was published in 1982 and is a semi-autobiographical story of a young girl growing up in a military family. Osborne wrote the first book of the very popular Magic Tree House series in 1992. Since then the 26 books in the series have sold over 12 million copies.

She is now the author of many highly acclaimed picture books, early chapter books, middle-grade biographies, and young adult novels.

In February 1993, Mary was elected the 27th president of the Authors Guild, the oldest, most established organization for writers in the United States.

Osborne and her husband, writer Will Osborne, were married in 1976 and live in Connecticut.