North of Crazy is a memoir as unconventional and courageous as its mononymous author, Neltje. She was born Neltje Doubleday, yet for years she has used no last name, going only by Neltje. The life she recounts in the book is one of great passion, sadness, determination, and courage.

Neltje was brought up in a moneyed world of cultural prestige with the expectation that she would become a socially gifted wife and mother. The memoir follows Neltje’s life as she attempts to escape her childhood trauma, filling her time with parties and martini-fueled evenings entertaining the literati; eventually separating from society and her romantic lifestyle and establishing herself with her two children at the base of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. Now Neltje is an abstract expressionist painter, having exhibited her work from the Rocky Mountains to the sands of Florida.

Neltje Doubleday is a renowned artist and philanthropist. In addition to her work as a painter and sculptor, she has created a variety of awards and programs to encourage writing and the arts, including the Neltje Blanchan Literary Award and the Jentel Foundation, which supports artists' residencies at her ranch in Banner, Wyoming.