 Born in 1933 in Anderson , Indiana , Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was raised in Indiana and Illinois in the 1930s during the Great Depression . During her childhood she was hardly given any toys . Instead , with her parents reading to her every night , books formed a major part of her early years — " the happiest part " . Her parents read a variety of literature to her , including Bible stories , The Wind in the Willows , and Mark Twain 's novels , until she was 14 . After she became a parent , she read to her children in the mornings because of their evening activities . At 16 , Naylor wrote a short story for a church magazine , and in her early thirties she published her first book . She has published over 100 books . When she wrote and published Shiloh , her 65th novel , she was living in Bethesda , Maryland with her husband Rex , a speech pathologist whom she married in May 1960 . She has two adult sons and four grandchildren . 
