In Judy Blume: A Life, the biographer traces the life of an author whose candid novels about divorce, puberty, and other topics revolutionized literature for young people.

Why did you choose to write about Judy Blume?

When I was about 23, in the late ’90s, I wrote an essay about having been a boy who loved Judy Blume. I sent it to the New York Times book review, and lo and behold they published it. She very kindly reached out and said that she liked it. We stayed in very loose touch over the years, and about 10 years ago, I reached out to her with the possibility of writing a biography of her. She felt that it wasn’t time. Then, a few years ago she reached out and indicated that she felt that the time was probably now. I was going to work principally from her papers at Yale, but she agreed that if I did it and got a contract for it, she would talk to me, which I think was essential for the book that it became.

What do Blume’s books mean to you?

When you’re a young boy, the assumption is that you’re going to want to read about kings, historical warriors, robots, or space aliens. None of that interested me. I wanted the 10-year-old’s version of Updike and Sinclair Lewis. And when you went into Edwards Books in Springfield, Mass., what you found if you were looking for realism was a lot of Judy Blume. Those books were not only a great joy but really the early models of the literature that I would come to love.

Why have Blume’s books caused such controversy?

In the 1960s and ’70s, there were a number of authors writing books for young people that were extremely candid, vivid, and edgy. But Judy was selling millions of books at a time when others were lucky to sell thousands. So, when the censors and the book banners wanted to come for someone, they naturally alighted on her. She also was someone who was willing to take them on and fight for the rights of librarians to put books on their shelves and fight for the rights of children to read.

How would you describe Blume’s place in American literature?

She’s someone who has written a few enduring classics but has also inspired dozens of important writers. A lot of her support for younger writers is invisible and not something she seeks credit for. She is somebody who, as a booster, mentor, and connector, has had an influence on young people’s fiction that goes way beyond what most readers will ever see.