People like Jetta Carleton

Jetta Carleton (1913–1999) was an American novelist.

Carleton was born on a farm in Nevada, Missouri, the daughter of P. A. Carleton, the local superintendent of schools. She had two sisters, Truma and Yana; both were schoolteachers, and over twenty years older than she. The house in which they lived lacked indoor plumbing when she was born. Carleton attended Cottey College in Nevada, from which she graduated in 1933. She went on to study English and take a master's degree at the University of Missouri. from which she graduated in 1939. While there, she danced and acted in student productions, and in 1936 she was named the school's Poet of the Year.

Upon graduation from the university, Carleton moved to Joplin, where she taught at Joplin Junior College. After a short time there she moved again, to Kansas City, where she took a job at WHB writing advertising copy; eventually she was given her own program on the station about local events. While living there she met Jene Lyon, marrying him in 1943. They soon moved to New York City, where Carleton found work as an advertising copywriter, among a variety of other odd jobs. The couple purchased a house in Hoboken, New Jersey, but returned to Nevada for a visit for two weeks every summer. It was these visits which provided the inspiration for the novel The Moonflower Vine, much of which is based on stories from Carleton's family and other residents of the town.