Janet Lambert was an actress and the author of 54 young-adult fiction titles for girls from 1941 to 1969. Lambert's works, best known as the Penny and Tippy Parrish series, focused on the lives and coming-of-age choices of the wives and children, especially the daughters, of U.S. Army officers during World War II and the Korean War-era.
Family life
Lambert was born Maude Janet "Dodi" Snyder December 12 or 17, 1893 in or near Crawfordsville, Indiana, the daughter of Mabel Galey and Francis Leonidas Snyder. She married Kent Craig Lambert on January 1, 1918. Kent, a brother of longtime Purdue basketball coach, Ward Lambert, was a 1913 graduate of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Serving in World War I, he continued his Army career as a cavalry officer. In World War II, he saw service in North Africa, Anzio and China. His last posting was as post commander of Fort Jay, Governors Island, in New York City where he retired at the rank of colonel in 1951 after 34 years active duty. A photograph of Janet and Kent's formal military farewell from Fort Jay and the Army illustrated the dust jacket of one of her books. While not well documented, Janet Lambert performed on the Broadway stage in the years before and during World War I. The couple had one daughter, Jeanne Anne Lambert who, much like a character in her mother's books, married a United States Military Academy graduate, Second Lieutenant Dean Titus Vanderhoef, at Fort Jay's post chapel on July 27, 1940.
Literary Legacy
Lambert's life experience as an Army wife provided the background and settings for many of her books about the lives of teenage children of military officers. While the U.S. Military Academy figures appear frequently in the lives of her characters, her husband did not attend West Point, gaining his officer training through the National Guard and mid-level Army schools such at the United States Army Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas. In 1930, he was instructor at the Virginia Military Institute. As for her female characters, often military wives or children, she drew on her experiences and observations as a military wife who had to balance career aspirations and married life. Janet Lambert died on March 16, 1973 at Beach Haven, New Jersey and is buried with her husband in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Works by Janet Lambert
Listed by series and years of original publication: PENNY PARRISH STORIES
