Valerie Worth was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, where her father taught biology at Swarthmore College.
[1] Worth returned to Swarthmore for college, where in 1955 she received an English Degree with High Honors.
After a few peripatetic years, the couple eventually settled in Clinton, New York, where her husband taught at Kirkland College.
Babbitt had published a few books at the time and recommended Worth's poems to her editor, Michael di Capua at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
In addition to poetry Worth also published two young adult novels, Gypsy Gold and Fox Hill, as well as Curlicues: The Fortunes of Two Pug Dogs, a picture book also illustrated by Babbitt.