[5] She was raised in Manhattan until the age of seven, when her parents divorced and she began attending Winnwood School in Lake Grove and later, Northfield Seminary in Massachusetts.
[5][6] Although Nordstrom had hopes of becoming a writer and wanted to continue her education at Bryn Mawr College, she was prevented by her stepfather, Elliott R. Brown and instead took secretarial and business courses at The Scudder School for Girls.
[5] In 1936, she became the assistant of Ida Louise Raymond, the director of Harper Books for Boys and Girls, who helped publish the work of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Clare Turlay Newberry.
White's Stuart Little in 1945, and she would go on to edit several more classics of children's literature, including Charlotte's Web (1952), Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon (1947), Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955), Syd Hoff's Danny and the Dinosaur (1958), Karla Kuskin's Roar and More (1956), and Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974).
[5] Many of Nordstrom's publications featured taboo themes and subjects, such as menstruation, same-sex relationships, and racism, and continue to be the target of book ban campaigns today.
[8] At some point, she was offered a "promotion" to the adult literature department of Harper, but refused due to her belief that publishing children's books was more interesting and important.
[7] She was known as a stubborn but welcoming editor; she disliked both "stuffy" and babyish language, and understood the literary impact that seemingly simple texts for children could have.
[5] In 1960, Nordstrom published her own children's book, The Secret Language, about a young girl's experiences at a boarding school, possibly based on her own childhood.
[15] According to children's literature historian, Leonard S. Marcus, Nordstrom may have written a sequel titled The Secret Choice, but could not decide on the book's ending and ultimately burned the manuscript.