Josephine Winslow Johnson was born in Kirkwood, Missouri, in 1910. She won O. Henry Awards for her short stories in 1934 and 1935, and again in 1942, 1943 and 1944.
Her books include Now in November (1934), Winter Orchard and Other Stories (1936), Jordanstown (1937), Wildwood (1947), The Inland Island (1969) and the memoir Seven Houses (1973). She taught at the University of Iowa for three years after 1942, and she died in Batavia, Ohio, in 1990.