Richard and Florence Atwater co-authored the book Mr. Popper's Penguins, which won the 1939 Newbery Honor Award.
After her husband's stroke in 1934, Florence Atwater started teaching high school French, English and Latin, and wrote short pieces for The New Yorker, Woman's Home Companion and The Atlantic.
She rewrote parts of the book and the revised version was accepted by Little Brown and published in 1938 to great success.
Atwater translated into English Procopius' Secret History, a 6th century story of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora.
The Story of Mr. Popper's Penguins", inspired by a documentary about Richard E. Byrd's Antarctic expedition that he had seen with his family in 1932.