Jeannette Haien was an accomplished professional concert pianist and music teacher for over thirty-five years before embarking on her career as a novelist in her 60s. Her debut novel, The All of It, was published in 1986 and received the prestigious Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the Academy of Arts and Letters.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Jeannette was the daughter of a Dutch immigrant-industrialist father and a violinist mother. She pursued her higher education at the University of Michigan, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in music.

Jeannette performed extensively as a pianist throughout the Midwest, both before and immediately after her marriage to Ernest Ballard in 1948. In 1950, the couple relocated to New York City, which became their permanent residence.