Medicine bag was made out of otter skin.We were also interested how the medicine was collected, preserved, and stored. We appreciated the way the medicine/healing made Ayla “valuable.” Ayla needed to be taught the traditions, while Iza already had the “memories.” We had a brief debate (with no resolution) about whether the “memories” were “instinct,” and how cool it would be if that were really in our genetics (we are born knowing everything that our ancestors through the centuries knew).

Some moments of insight from our conversation: As the book so accurately describes, you can see the brow ridges on the Neanderthal and the lack of chin. On the left is Homo Sapiens Sapiens (that's us humans) and on the right is Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis. On a recent visit to the Boston Museum of Science, I photographed these bones. Over the following twenty-two years, she published three more novels in the series: The Valley of the Horses (1982), The Mammoth Hunters (1985), and The Plains of Passage (1990). Finally, in 1978, she found a publisher willing to devote the time and resources to publishing the series.

She rewrote The Clan of the Cave Bear four times. In the mid-1970s, Auel began revising her mammoth manuscript. As Auel asserts, 'the story lead to research, the research fired my imagination, and the wealth of material made me decide to write a novel.' The original manuscript was almost one half-million words long and was rejected by several publishers. In fact, The Clan of the Cave Bear started as a short story exploring Auel's interest in Paleolithic humans. It was not until after she had raised five children that she began to write poetry and fiction. She moved to Oregon and attended Portland State University, receiving her M.A. AUTHOR – Jean Auel was born in Chicago on February 18, 1936.

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