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Barbara Asenath Corcoran was born on April 12, 1911 in Hamilton, Massachusetts. She was the only child of John and Annah Corcoran. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1933 and received a Master of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Montana in Missoula in 1955. Following her graduation from Wellesley, she worked for the Federal Writer's Project and then the Navy during World War II. She also worked in advertising, for various theaters, as a playwright, in the story department at CBS television and for a celebrity news service in Hollywood, California. She also taught English at various institutions in Colorado, Kentucky, and California.

Throughout her career, Corcoran wrote articles and short stories, publishing them in newspapers and magazines. Her first children's novel, Sam was published in 1967. She left teaching to write full-time in 1969. A prolific author, she also published under the pseudonyms Gail Hamilton and Paige Dixon. Corcoran became known as a children's and young adult writer, publishing over 70 novels and earning both the William Allen White Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. She moved back to Missoula, Montana in the early 1970s where she lived and worked until her death on November 9, 2003.