Shirley Ann Grau was born 8 July 1929 in New Orleans to Adolph Eugene and Katherine (Onions) Grau. Her paternal grandfather came to this country from Prussia before the Civil War; the ancestry on her mother's side is a mixture of English, Scotch, and Irish. Grau spent her childhood in New Orleans and Montgomery, Alabama. She attended Booth Academy, a private school in Montgomery, where she acquired a background in math, literature, and languages, including what she calls "a good working knowledge of classical Latin." When she was a senior, the family moved to New Orleans; there she graduated from Ursuline Academy. Grau received her college education at Sophie Newcomb College, Tulane University, taking a B.A. with honors in English and remaining for a year of graduate work at Tulane.

Grau was taught to read at an early age and remembers a large family library, but writing was not...