About the Author

Irene Hunt was born in Newton, Illinois on May 18, 1907. Her parents were Franklin and Sarah Land Hunt.

Her father died when she was seven, an experience which she was later to use in her novel, Up a Road Slowly.

In 1939, she earned an A.B. degree from the University of Illinois, and in 1946 she received her M.A. degree from the University of Minnesota. This, of course, was at a time when few women attended college at all.

After graduating from college with a Master of Arts degree, she spent most of her career as a public school teacher, teaching in Oak Park, Illinois from 1930 to 1945. She went on to teach at the University of South Dakota from 1946 to 1950, before going back to the public school, teaching in Cicero, Illinois from 1950 to 1965. Upon retiring from teaching, she became a consultant in language arts.

Across Five Aprils was her first novel, published in 1964. She followed it up with Up a Road Slowly in 1966.

Other books include Trail of Apple Blossoms in 1968, and No Promises in the Wind in 1970.