Graham MacDonald was born in 1944 at "Teiaiagon," the site of an ancient Native community near the old fur trade "carrying–place" on the Humber River in western Ontario. In his youth, he was introduced, by his parents, to literature and to some of the wilder places in North America. Since 1965, he has lived and worked in many places in Canada as a teacher, librarian, historian, park planner, and heritage consultant.