Andersen was born on February 6, 1909 in Tanana, Alaska after a 100-mile trip by dog team along the frozen Yukon River from the Indian village of Mouse Point. She was the youngest daughter of Edgar Crompton (born Gloucester, England), a goldminer, trapper and trader during the Alaska gold rush. She received degrees from UBC (1929) and the University of Washington (1930). She worked as a librarian in Ottawa, Seattle and Vancouver. She was a branch head at the Vancouver Public Library from 1965 to 1974.

Retired as of 1974, she published a children's book called Slave of the Haida (Macmillan, 1974) about a Salish boy who becomes a Haida slave. It was a follow-up to her first book for young readers, Blood Brothers (Macmillan, 1967). Slave of the Haida published in several languages. For adults she wrote Evergreen Islands: The Islands of the Inside Passage, Quadra to Malcolm (Gray's, 1979 / Whitecap, 1985), a well-known history of the coastal mission hospital ships called The Columbia is Coming!, plus a biography of SFU President Pauline Jewett, To Change the World (Irwin, 1987), and a history called Ways Harsh and Wild (J.J. Douglas, 1973, 1977). She lived in West Vancouver and summered on Quadra Island.

BOOKS:

Blood Brothers (Macmillan, 1967)
Ways Harsh and Wild (J.J. Douglas, 1973, 1977)
Slave of the Haida (Macmillan, 1974)
The Columbia is Coming! (Gray's, 1982)
Evergreen Islands: The Islands of the Inside Passage, Quadra to Malcolm (Gray's, 1979 / Whitecap, 1985)
To Change the World (Irwin, 1987)

[BCBW 2003] "Women" "Kidlit" "Maritime" "Missionaries"