Born in 1929, Mary Jane Lumijarvi is the granddaughter of Finnish immigrants who settled near Astoria, Oregon. She grew up in a rural Finnish-American community, and attended Willamette University, the University of Oregon, and San Francisco State University. She holds a BA and an MA degree in English Literature.
Mary was married in 1957 to Edward Emmett Caraker, and was widowed in 1989. She has taught in secondary schools, and now works as a freelance writer.
She is most often anthologized as a science fiction writer. She lives in California.
