Born January 30, 1924, to stockbroker/importer Alan Audley Alexander and his wife Edna Chudley Alexander in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the young Lloyd Alexander was a lover of stories, especially tales from Greek and Celtic mythology. Alexander, who declared from age fifteen that he wanted to write poetry, worked as a messenger boy in a bank until he could afford tuition to West Chester State Teacher's College. In 1942, at the end of only one semester of college, Alexander left his studies for a more adventurous life in the army. After a few unexciting months in Texas, he was assigned to a military intelligence training center in Maryland. Shipped to Wales, Alexander discovered "an enchanted world," one where "I recognized faces from all the hero tales of my childhood . . . . Not until years afterwards did I realize I had been given a glimpse of another enchanted kingdom" (My Love...