K ristin Eggleston Hunter was bom on September 12, 1931, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father was a school principal and U.S. Army colonel, and her mother worked as a pharmacist and teacher. Hunter earned a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951.

Although she was trained to teach elementary school, she decided instead to pursue a variety of employment opportunities. She has worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies and, at different times, a research assistant, lecturer assistant, and lecturer in English at the University of Pennsylvania. Hunter has also held the post of writer-in-residence at Emory University.

Hunter's writing career began while she was still in junior high school. At the age of fourteen, she wrote a column for young people that appeared in the Philadelphia edition of the Pittsburgh Courier. Hunter's first novel, God Bless the Child (1964), illustrates her exceptional...