Katharine Gibson was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the daughter, and youngest of three children, of the architect Louis Henry Gibson and Emily Gilbert Gibson. Her father died in 1907 and in 1915 Katharine and her mother moved to Cleveland where Emily had been hired to establish an education department for the soon to open Cleveland Museum of Art. Katharine worked as her mother's assistant, and continued working for the Cleveland Museum of Art after her mother's death in 1917, until, in 1945, she resigned to take a position as writer and editorial consultant for Artists and Writers Guild in New York in the field of Children's books. She published many books for children, starting in 1927, with The Golden Bird, a collection of folk tales from around the world. Two of her seven works of children's fiction, Cinders and Jock's Castle, were named as Horn Book Fanfare best books in their years of publication. She also wrote a book on art and craft of the Middle Ages, The Goldsmith of Florence, and two books of art reproductions for children: Pictures to Grow Up With and More Pictures to Grow Up With. Katharine married Indianapolis Unitarian minister Frank Scott Corey Wicks in 1932. They traveled often to England and Europe, settings she often used in her books. After the death of Dr. Wicks in 1953 she returned to live in Cleveland. Her last published book is the novel To See the Queen, a tale of the young Queen Isabella of England.