Robert D. San Souci was born in 1946 in San Francisco. After holding jobs in book stores and in publishing, San Souci has been a full-time award-winning children's book author since 1974. San Souci is best known for his adaptations of folklore for children. His first books, The Legend of Scarface and Song of Sedna, were written in 1978 and 1981, respectively. Since then he has written dozens of others. His brother Daniel frequently illustrates his work. The Legend of Scarface won the Notable Children's Trade Book in the Social Studies, National Council for the Social Studies, and was a Horn Book honor list citation. Sukey and the Mermaid won the American Library Association's Notable Book… citation in 1992, and Cut from the Same Cloth won an Aesop Award from the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society. Robert San Souci has also written some nonfiction works for children and several novels for adults.