T.A. Barron grew up on a ranch north of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He attended Princeton University, where he completed the Teacher Certification program and served as class president before receiving his B.A. in History in 1974. Following his undergraduate degree, Barron became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. During this experience, Barron began traveling the world and backpacked extensively in the Highlands of Scotland - as well as Asia, Africa, and the Arctic. After eight years of working on Wall Street, Barron returned to Colorado in 1990 to pursue writing full time.