Charlie May Simon was born on August 17, 1897 to Charles Wayman Hough and Mary Gill Hough in Drew County, Arkansas. The family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, when Simon was young, where she attended public schools in Memphis and a course at Memphis Normal School (University of Memphis today). Her early attempt at a literary career was unsuccessful, having her first manuscript rejected by a publisher. Thinking she lacked literary talent, Simon instead focused on graphic arts.

After the death of her first husband, Simon moved to Chicago, then Paris, France, studying at various schools and expanding her perspectives in art. While in Paris, she met and married her fellow artist, Howard Simon in 1926. The couple lived in Paris before moving to Arkansas, residing in a mountainside log cabin in Perry County. Out of dire financial necessity in the 1930s, Simon began writing again. Her second work, “Retreat to the Land,” was well received and truly began her literary career. A year later, she wrote her first published novel, Robin on the Mountain.

While Simon embraced the hard work and life of Perry County, her husband did not. The two divorced in 1935, and he moved back to Paris, though Howard Simon served as Simon’s illustrator for several years. Simon continued to write, catching the attention of John Gould Fletcher. The two admired each other’s work and ran in the same literary circles. Simon and Fletcher married on January 18, 1936. They lived in Johnswood, on the western edge of Little Rock, overlooking the Arkansas River. There, they worked on their own literary pursuits; poetry for Fletcher and children’s literature for Simon.

After Fletcher’s death in 1950, Simon’s literary career shifted from primarily focusing on children’s literature to biographies. She traveled the globe, spent time with the subjects of her writing, and conducted extensive research. She published several biographies including philosopher-musician-physician Albert Schweitzer, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld, and the crown prince and princess of Japan.

In 1971, the Arkansas Department of Education named their children’s literature award the Charlie May Simon Award, in honor of her body of work. Arkansas school children read and vote on books to be given this award. Simon’s literary career spanned forty years, with her last work published in 1974 on Teilhard de Chardin. Charlie May Simon died on March 21, 1977 and was interred at the Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock.