Lowry's first novel, A Summer to Die (1977), is about the relationship between two adolescent sisters, Meg and Molly, and the effect that Molly's death, as a result of leukemia, has on the family. Lowry based the relationship between Meg and Molly on her own memories of her relationship with her older sister, Helen, as they were growing up, and on the feelings and emotions that she felt when Helen died at the age of twenty-eight of cancer. Lowry experienced other heartaches as well. Lowry's oldest son, Grey, a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, was killed in a plane crash in 1995. In addition, Lowry has a daughter who became disabled as a result of a disease involving the central nervous system. Her daughter's disability has reinforced Lowry's belief that people are "connected" despite their physical differences.
In 1977, Lowry and her husband divorced, and Lowry remained in Maine for the next two years, continuing to write. After completing another serious novel, Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye (1978), Lowry moved to Boston. Because she had been writing about serious and sad issues, she decided to write a humorous short story about a 10-year-old girl named Anastasia Krupnik. Anastasia is a gangly girl who wears glasses, has messy blonde hair, and is always getting into mischief. Lowry liked Anastasia and her family so much that the short story became the first chapter of her novel Anastasia Krupnik (1979), the first in a series of novels about Anastasia.
Lowry lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and spends most weekends at her nineteenth-century farmhouse in New Hampshire. She spends at least five hours writing every single morning, working on more than one project at a time. When she isn't writing, she likes to cook, garden in the summer, and knit in the winter. She enjoys reading memoirs and biographies, taking exotic, adventurous trips, and going to as many movies as possible. She is also an accomplished photographer. The photograph of a young Swedish girl on the cover of the Yearling-Newbery edition of Number the Stars was taken by Lowry.
Lowry's novels cover a variety of topics that range in tone from serious to humorous and share many of the same themes: freedom, friendship, and the interdependency that exists between people. Through her writing, Lowry communicates her hope for human decency to exist in the world.
