From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - Brossura

E.L. Konigsburg has never spent the night in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, like the heroine of her Newbery Medal-winning novel, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, does. But she was born in New York, and she is a part-time painter. In fact she's done the illustrations for a number of books.
 
Konigsburg did not grow up in the city. Her family moved to Pennsylvania when she was young, and most of her childhood was spent in small towns in that state. When she attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, she majored in chemistry, and after graduation she worked as a chemist, doing research and teaching. It wasn't until after she was married and had three children in school that Konigsburg began writing books.
 
What is exceptional about Konigsburg is her

An Excerpt from From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs.
      Basil E. Frankweiler

      

      Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running
      away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her
      back. She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient:
      all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore,
      she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere
      but would be running to somewhere. To a large place, a comfortable place,
      and indoor place, and preferably a beautiful place. And that's why she decided
      upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.