Dorothy Kunhardt was born in New York City, the daughter of historian Frederick Hill Meserve. She was educated at the Brearly School in Manhattan and then at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. In 1923, after she graduated from college, she and her best friend left New York to travel the world. In 1925 she went to France to study art and drawing in Paris. In 1926 she married Philip B. Kunhardt, Sr., with whom she moved to Morristown, New Jersey, and had four children. In 1934 her first book, Junket Is Nice was published. Over the course of her career she wrote nearly 50 books, including Pat the Bunny, which is one of the bestselling children's books of all time. She also wrote a biography of Lincoln's assassination called Twenty Days. For the last ten years of her life she returned to live in New York City.
