Sawyer was born on August 5, 1880, in
Boston, Massachusetts. She was the youngest of five children, was the only daughter of Francis Milton and Ethalinda Smith Sawyer. While she was still a baby they moved to New York City, where she attended private school. The product of a wealthy family, Sawyer had an Irish
nanny named Joanna, who inspired her love and appreciation of storytelling. Upon the death of her father, a New York City importer, the family moved to their summer cottage in Maine. There they lived off the land, an experience that Sawyer later described in her novel,
The Year of Jubilo. Eventually the family returned to New York and Sawyer attended the
Garland Kindergarten Training School for two years. In 1900, Sawyer left Garland and traveled to Cuba. There she taught storytelling to teachers who were opening kindergartens for children orphaned during the
Spanish–American War. After returning to the United States, her work in Cuba helped her obtain a scholarship to Columbia University where she studied
storytelling and
folk lore. After Sawyer's husband retired in 1946, they moved to Maine, where they lived until resettling in Boston in 1956. In 1965 she received the seventh annual
Regina Medal from the Catholic Library Association for "continued, distinguished contribution to children's literature without regard to the nature of the contribution." Sawyer never stopped writing, traveling or telling stories. At age 81 she went to Austria to research the legend of the
Dwarf King named Laurin. Ruth Sawyer, "the great lady of American storytelling", Her papers are held at
St. Catherine University in St. Paul. ==Writing career==