Born August 7, 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota, and christened Gary by his parents, John and Grace Denham Keillor. "I've lived all of my life in Minnesota. As a child, the Laura Ingalls Wilder books were special to me because they were set so close by. These stories led me to other books written by Minnesota authors, and later I read Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I've loved all kinds of books--including books that are far better than anything Lewis or Fitzgerald ever wrote--but it amazed me as a boy that people could make books out of the terrain and population where I lived. It just amazed me, to think that you could write books about Minnesota."¹

"When I was four years old, I fell through a hole in the haymow into the bull pen, missing the stanchion and landing in his feed trough full of hay, and was carried...