Phyllis Ayame Whitney was born in Yokohama, Japan, the daughter of American parents, and spent her early years in Asia. She began writing early in her teens. In 1918, upon the death of her father, she travelled with her mother to Berkeley, California, and then to San Antonio, Texas. A few years later her mother died, and she moved to Chicago to live with her aunt. After graduating from high school, she began to write seriously, and began to sell her stories to newspapers and pulp magazines while supporting herself by working for The Chicago Public Library and bookstores in Chicago. She married her first husband in 1934. During the 1940s she was a children's book editor for both the Chicago Sun and the Philadelphia Enquirer. Her first book, a mystery for children called A Place for Ann, was published in 1941. Over the course of her career, she wrote more than 70 novels. In 1961, her book The Mystery of the Haunted Pool won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Juvenile novel, and she received another in 1964 for The Mystery of the Hidden Hand. In 1975, she was elected President of the Mystery Writers of America, and in 1988, she was awarded its Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement.