Evelyn Sibley Lampman was born April 18, 1907, in Dallas, Oregon, and grew up in this small town in the Willamette Valley. In the nineteenth century, this area had drawn many pioneers, among them Lampman's great-grandparents. Stories of the pioneer days passed on in the family would form the basis for many of her books.

She once explained that the townspeople featured in The Bounces of Cynthiann' were based on stories told by her father. Lampman graduated from Oregon State University in Corvallis in 1929 with a degree in education. In 1934 she married Sheldon Lampman, a newspaperman; the couple had two daughters.

After graduation, Lampman went to work for a Portland radio station as a continuity writer, a position she held for five years. She quit to devote herself to her marriage and children, but after her husband died, she returned to the station. Under the pen...