Val Teal

Val Teal (1902–1997) was born in Bottineau, North Dakota, on February 14th, the third generation in her family to be born on Valentine’s Day. She did undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota during the 1920s and worked for many years as a tutor in the humanities at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. From the 1930s on she contributed personal essays and stories to such magazines as Saturday Evening Post, Woman’s Home Companion, Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and Parents, but it was not until 1943 that she published her first book, The Little Woman Wanted Noise. In addition to her stories for children, Teal also wrote a memoir of motherhood, It Was Not What I Expected.
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