Mary TallMountain (1918–1994), whose mother was stricken with tuberculosis, was adopted when she was three years old. A member of the Koykon-Athabaskan people, she was taken away from the village where she had been born to another place in Alaska. She moved to San Francisco in 1945 to run her own business. She later changed jobs many times before finding her calling in writing.

Countee Cullen (1903–1946) was born in New York City and given the name Countee Leroy Porter. He was adopted by the Reverend Frederick Cullen in 1918. He studied at New York University and at Harvard University. Cullen served as editor of the magazine Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, taught French in a high school, and wrote and published children's books. He also wrote novels and many poems. His works include Color, Copper Sun, The Ballad of the Brown Girl, One Way to Heaven, and On These I Stand.