Biography of Author Jean Auel

Jean Auel was born as Jean Marie Untinen on February 18, 1936 in Chicago, IL. She was born the second of five children of Neil Solomon Untinen, a house painter and Martha Wirtanen. Auel married Ray Bernard Auel. They have five children and live in Portland, Oregon.

Since 1964, Auel has been a member of Mensa. She attended Portland State University and the University of Portland. She worked as a clerk from 1965-1966; a circuit board designer from 1966-1973; a technical writer from 1973-1974; and as a credit manager at Tektronix. She earned an MBA in 1976 and received honorary degrees from the University of Maine, and from Mount Vernon College for Women.

Come 1977, Auel started extensive library research of the Ice Age for her first book. To learn how to construct an ice cave, and learn primitive methods of making fire, tanning leather, and knapping stone, Auel went to a survival class taught by Jim Riggs, an Aboriginal skills expert.

Her first book Clan of the Cave Bear, was nominated for several literary awards, including an American Booksellers Association nomination for best first novel. After her first book was published in 1980, Auel was able to travel to prehistoric sites and meet many of the experts she had been corresponding with. Her research has taken Auel on quite the journey from across Europe, to France and Ukraine.

Auel developed a close bond with Dr. Jean Clottes of France. Clottes was responsible for the exploration of the Cosquer Cave discovered in 1985 and the Chauvet Cave discovered in 1994.

Auel's books have been commended for their anthropological authenticity and their ethnobotanical accuracy. Yet, recent research may suggest that some prehistoric details in the books are inaccurate and others fictional, and that specifications of prehistorical milestones are occasionally arbitrary and inconsistent.

For an example, the differences between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens may have been exaggerated. They have discovered that Neanderthals had a hyoid bone and may have been capable of using vocal language and were not as dependant on sign language as was portrayed in the series. This existence of Neanderthals hyoid bone wasn't confirmed until 1983, three years after the first book in the series was published.

Jean Auel has written the following books in the Earth's Children Series:

Clan of the Cave Bear

The Valley of Horses

The Mammoth Hunters

The Shelters of Stone

The Plains of Passage

Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Auel