Moore was born in Limerick, Maine. She had seven older brothers and was the only surviving daughter of Luther Sanborn and Sarah Barker Moore.Lundin, A. (1996). "Anne Carroll Moore: 'I have spun out a long thread'". In Suzanne E. Hildebrand, Reclaiming the American Library Past: writing the women in Norwood, New Jersey, Stamford, Conn.: Ablex Publishing Company, pp. 187–204. She described her childhood as a happy one and wrote about growing up in My Roads to Childhood. Moore began her formal education at the Limerick Academy in Maine. She then attended a two-year college, The Bradford Academy in Massachusetts. She was very close to her father and hoped to follow in his footsteps as a lawyer, despite the biases of her era.
