Jean Marie Auel was born in Chicago, Illinois, as the second of five children. Her father was a housepainter. After high school, she married Ray Bernard Auel in 1954; they had five children. In 1965-66 she worked as a clerk in Beaverton, Oregon, then as a circuit board designer (1966-1973), technical writer (1973-74), and a credit manager (1974-1976). Auel studied at Portland State University, Oregon and University of Portland, receiving her M.B.A. in 1976, at the age of forty. In the same year she got the idea for a story about a girl, Ayla, living amongst people who are different from her. She left her work in a Portland electronics plant and devoted herself entirely to writing.