James McKimmey

Born on September 5, 1923, in Holdrege, Nebraska, he grew up in Nebraska and first studied architecture before World War II interrupted his plans. He served for three years in the U.S. Army's 102nd Infantry Division, then returned to school to study writing and eventually made fiction his full-time work.

He began selling stories to magazines in the 1950s and went on to write 17 books, along with a large body of short fiction. Although he is often remembered for crime novels such as The Perfect Victim, he also wrote science fiction, adventure, westerns, and juvenile fiction, showing an unusual range across popular genres.

Later in life he lived in the Lake Tahoe area for many years. Readers interested in mid-century popular fiction may know him for his lean, fast-moving crime writing, while science fiction fans may recognize him from stories collected in volumes such as The Eyes Have It and Planet of Dreams.