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Lester Del Rey was born in Clydesdale, Minnesota. His mother died shortly after his birth, leaving the boy and his older sister in the care of their father. Sensing that the children should have a mother, his father hired a woman to care for the children, and later married her. Unfortunately, the stepmother was unable to form an attachment to young Lester.
Lester was a precocious reader, and finished school at the age of 16; receiving a certificate, but not formally graduating. In 1931, he moved to Washington D.C. to attend George Washington University on a scholarship, although he left after taking only science classes. For two years he supported himself through odd jobs and writing poetry. He sold 20 poems to various magazines before deciding that he was not a poet.
He wrote his first published story on a dare from a friend, after Del Rey had criticized the work of a professional writer. In one day he wrote "The Faithful" and submitted it to a magazine. Eight days later he received a check from the magazine, and this started him on his professional writing career.
In 1951 he began writing a series for young readers, the first of these being "A Pirate Flag from Monterey". His book, "Marooned on Mars", received the first Boys' Clubs of America Science Fiction Award in 1953.
He was a regular editor for several magazines, including Fantasy Fiction and Science Fiction Adventures, and later for the publisher Ballantine Books. It was at Ballantine that he helped to launch the subdivision publisher, Del Rey Books, with the aid of his third wife, Judy-Lynn del Rey.
