Summary

Octavia E. Butler’s biography begins with a description of her mother’s education level. She was pulled out of school early to begin working as her mother was widowed around the beginning of the Great Depression. She was grateful that Octavia was always inside reading so she did not have a chance to get into trouble. Octavia was born to Laurice James Butler and Octavia Margaret Butler in 1947 in Los Angeles, California. Her father was a shoeshine man and her mother a live-in domestic servant. Her mother was born in Louisiana and lived on a sugarcane plantation before migrating with her family to Southern California during the Great Migration. Her father died in 1951 and she never knew much about his early life.

Octavia’s parents were married in 1931 when “the spirit was dark as the nation was mired deep in the...