The first Angelina Ballerina book was published in 1983 by Katharine Holabird. Katharine attended Bennington College in Vermont after graduating from the Francis Parker School in Chicago. She graduated with a B.A. In 1969, he earned a bachelor's degree in literature from Bennington College, after which he worked as a literary editor at the college for a year. She moved to Italy the next year to work as a freelance journalist. Katharine married in 1974 and moved to London, England with her husband, Michael Haggiag, where she still resides with her family.