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; her mother was a high school teacher of English and Spanish. While she was still a child, her family moved near Des Moines, Iowa. Hall remembers being a loner, not for a particular reason, since her family life was a happy one; she simply preferred being alone. She developed a fondness for animals, especially horses. When fourteen years old, she used money she had earned to buy herself a horse. She rode everyday; her knowledge of horses provides backgrounds for several of her books.

After graduating from high school, Hall held a wide variety of jobs in Colorado, Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, and Wisconsin, as well as Iowa. On May 1, 1960, she married Dean W. Green; they were divorced in September 1961. From 1955 to...