James McKimmey

Born in Holdrege, Nebraska, in 1923, James Earl McKimmey Jr. became a prolific American writer whose work ranged across crime fiction, thrillers, science fiction, westerns, and adventure stories. Reliable sources on his career note that he published 17 novels along with hundreds of short stories, building a reputation as a flexible, fast-moving storyteller.

He is especially remembered for his crime novels of the 1950s and 1960s, but his short fiction also appeared in genre magazines and helped give him a wider readership. Reference sources and publisher notes both describe him as a writer who was comfortable crossing genre lines, which helps explain why his work still turns up in discussions of both pulp-era mystery and classic science fiction.

Later in life he lived in the Lake Tahoe area and continued writing for decades. He died on January 19, 2011, in Carson City, Nevada, leaving behind a body of work that reflects the energy and variety of American popular fiction in the mid-20th century.