She taught French and English in the Oak Park, Illinois, public schools for 39 years. According to her nephew, Wendell Bruce Beem (?), for many years she worked at her kitchen table, pounding the typewriter until late at night, accumulating heaps of rejection slips but, of course, learning with every manuscript she completed. Her first novel (Across Five Aprils) was not published until she was 57, but it won the Newbery honor and a bunch of other awards and was critically acclaimed and stuff.
Books:
Across Five Aprils
Claws of a Young Century (out of print)
The Everlasting Hills (out of print)
Lottery Rose
No Promises in the Wind
Trail of Apple Blossoms (out of print}
Up a Road Slowly (1967 Newbery Award)
William (out of print)
thanks to:
http://www.edupaperback.org/authorbios/huntiren.html
http://www.mcdougallittell.com/lit/guest/hunt/
http://www.sos.state.il.us/depts/library/programs/kids/ia_hunt.html
www.amazon.com