Vicki Lansky was born in Louisville, Ky., on January 6, 1942. She received a B.A. from Connecticut College in 1963, and then began a varied career, working as a buyer for a New York City clothing store, as a freelance photographer, and as a childbirth education teaching assistant. In 1974, however, she became involved in publishing when she and several other mothers collaborated on a babyfood cookbook. When none of the publishers they approached were interested in the book, Lansky and her husband, Bruce, decided to publish the book themselves and distribute it from home. Their creative promotional efforts turned Feed Me! I'm Yours into one of the bestselling cookbooks in its category, and Lansky found her niche as a writer and publisher of parenting materials. Her next book, The Taming of the C.A.N.D.Y. Monster, was a New York Times bestseller, and in 1979 Lansky began publishing a bimonthly newsletter called Practical Parenting. This venture led to a nationally syndicated radio feature and a series of parenting books geared toward inexperienced parents. Now divorced, Lansky lives in Minnesota, where she is the founder and owner of The Book Peddlars, a publisher and literary agency. In addition, she continues to write, publishing books on a wide range of topics related to childrearing. She received the 1990 Parent's Choice Award for Vicky Lansky's Divorce Book for Parents: Helping Children Cope with Divorce and Its Aftermath. Lansky has also been a contributing editor to Family Circle magazine and a columnist for Sesame Street Parents magazine.
