Lynn Hall was born November 9, 1937, in Lombard, Illinois, to Raymond Edwin Hall and Alice (nee Seeds) Hall. Her father worked for Standard Oil, and her mother taught high school English and Spanish. She was still a child when her family moved near Des Moines, Iowa. Hall had a happy family life growing up, but she remembers being solitary by choice as a child—she simply preferred being alone—although she soon became very fond of animals, especially horses. Hall was fourteen when she bought a horse with money she earned herself. She rode everyday, acquiring 4600 Fair Maiden a first-hand knowledge of horses that would later provide backgrounds for several of her books.

After graduating from high school, Hall held a wide variety of jobs in Colorado, Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The years from 1955 to 1966 were rootless and unsatisfying. She moved...