(Portrait from his 1985 book, ''It's Never too Late'') ***Clarence A. [Alton] Boon was born at Davidson, Saskatchewan.*** He lived through the thirties, knowing what a time it was to get an education. All members of the family had to work at an early age to keep food on the table. ***He started farming on his own in 1937. The worst year of the thirties.*** He had to move to southeastern Saskatchewan that year in order to feed his stock. ***Eleven years later he moved to Virden, Manitoba,*** where he still farms a two-section mixed farm, with the help of his family. As soon as his oldest son gets married, and takes over the farm, he and his wife are going to retire to a house beside the Assiniboine River, where he hopes to have more time to write.***--(1975 'about author,' in ''I was a Step-child,'' by Clarence A. Boon)***