Background and career
Meggin Patricia Cabot (born February 1, 1967) is an American novelist. She has written and published over 80 novels of young adult and adult fiction and is best known for her young adult series The Princess Diaries, which was later adapted by Walt Disney Pictures into two feature films. Cabot has been the recipient of numerous book awards, including the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, the American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, the Tennessee Volunteer State TASL Book Award, the Book Sense Pick, the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, and the IRA/CBC Young Adult Choice. She has also had number-one New York Times bestsellers, and more than 25 million copies of her books are in print across the world.
Meggin Patricia Cabot was born on February 1, 1967, in Bloomington, Indiana. After she graduated from Indiana University, Cabot moved to New York City, with the original aim of pursuing a career as an illustrator. However, she soon quit this job and started working as an assistant manager of the freshman dormitory at New York University.
Meg Cabot married financial writer and poet Benjamin D. Egnatz on April 1, 1993. Their wedding date, April Fool's Day, was a deliberate play on her husband's belief that only fools get married in the first place. The wedding was an elopement in Italy. Her novel Every Boy's Got One is loosely based on her elopement. She has cats, Henrietta (a one-eyed cat; 1993–2013), and Gem, about whom she often blogs. After living in Indiana, California, New York, and France, she now lives in Key West, Florida with her husband.
The Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls series is about 9-year-old Allie Finkle, who has to contend with moving from her suburban home to an old Victorian house, starting a new school, and making new friends.
From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess is a series for "tween" readers featuring Princess Mia's half-sister, Olivia Grace. The books are illustrated by Cabot.
The Princess Diaries series is the most critically acclaimed series written by Meg Cabot and has been published in more than 40 countries. The first book in the series was published in October 2000. The series spent 48 weeks on the New York Times Children's Series Best Sellers List, and was sold to publishers in 37 foreign countries. In 2021, Time magazine named The Princess Diaries one of the 100 Best YA Books of All Time. In 2001 and 2004, respectively, the series was brought to the big screen by Walt Disney Pictures as The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. In the UK and Australia, the books are published under titles based on the volume number (e.g.: Mia Goes Fourth).
