Nancy Bond - Life

Life

Nancy Barbara Bond was born January 8, 1945 in Bethesda, Maryland, and grew up near Concord, Massachusetts. When Bond was eight the family spent a year in London while her father was on a Fulbright Scholarship. She graduated from high school in Concord, Massachusetts, then received her B.A. in English Literature from Mount Holyoke College in 1966. In 1972 she received a graduate degree from the College of Librarianship in Wales. Bond graduated from high school in Concord, Massachusetts, then received her B.A. in English Literature from Mount Holyoke College in 1966.

Bond worked in Boston for Houghton Mifflin publishing from 1966 to 1967, then for two years in London in the promotions department of Oxford University Press. After that Bond was an assistant librarian for the Lincoln, Massachusetts Public Library from 1969-1971. In 1972 Bond obtained a graduate degree from the College of Librarianship in Aberystwyth, Dyfed, Wales. After returning to the United States she looked for a job and began writing her first book, set near Aberystwyth. Bond became head librarian in the Gardner, Massachusetts library in 1973.

A String in the Harp appeared in 1976. Set near Aberystwyth where Bond attended college, it tells the story of an American family spending a year in Wales after the death of their mother. Bond told an interviewer, "Each of my stories is tied firmly to a geographical setting which plays an important part in the development of the book." She served as administrative assistant in the Massachusetts Audubon Society from 1976 to 1977. Her second book, The Best of Enemies, was published in 1978. From 1979 to 2001 Bond taught at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature. Since then she has worked as a bookseller and writer in Concord, Massachusetts.