Alberta Eiseman grew up in Venice, Italy, and came to the United States in 1941. A graduate of Cornell University, she held several jobs in the Italian language field in New York, then went to work for Seventeen magazine where, among other pleasurable tasks, she reviewed books for young people. Over a luncheon table at Schrafft's one day, Mrs. Eiseman and co-staffer Ingrid Sladkus compared notes on their ambition to write a junior novel about the magazine world . . . and before long Monica the Story of a Young Magazine Apprentice was on its way to Dodd, Mead & Company. It won the Seventeenth Summer Literary Competition, conducted by Compact, the Young People's Digest, and Dodd, Mead. At present, Mrs. Eiseman lives in Westport, Connecticut, with her husband, two daughters, aged six and three, a cat and three brand new kittens, who love to nap on her desk. She writes free lance articles and is a regular contributor to the young people's page of the New York Times Book Review.