Award-winning author and editor Marion Dane Bauer was born in the small prairie town of Oglesby, Illinois in 1938.

She has described her childhood as "idyllic," and began writing at a young age. Her young adult fiction often has a strong sense of place, since she writes about locales she knows well and provides rich details of them. While none of her fiction is strictly autobiographical, much of it is based on her personal experiences. When she was young, neighbor boys had gone swimming and one drowned, leaving the other to either explain what had happened or remain silent about his friend's disappearance. This event was the kernel of the award-winning On My Honor (1986). Bauer has also had experience as a foster parent, experience that formed the background for Foster Child (1977). Shelter from the Wind (1976), later adapted for television, makes use of Bauer's intimate knowledge...