Alistair MacLean was born in Glasgow, Scotland on April 28, 1922. During World War II, he served in the Royal Navy. He graduated with a degree in English from Glasgow University. Before becoming a full-time author, he was a teacher. He wrote numerous books including HMS Ulysses, The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare, Dark Crusader, Satan Bug, Captain Cook: A Biography, and Santorini. He also wrote The Black Shrike and The Satan Bug under the pseudonym Ian Stuart. Several of his books were adapted into movies including The Secret Ways, Fear Is the Key, and When Eight Bells Toll. He also wrote several original screenplays including Breakheart Pass and conceived an… adventure drama for television entitled The Hostage Towers. He died of heart failure on February 2, 1987 at the age of 64.William C. (Bill) Taylor is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He is a cofounder and founding editor of Fast Company. Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win was named a "Business Book of the Year" by The Economist and the Financial Times. Bill's new book is Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself (January 2011, William Morrow). Taylor is a graduate of Princeton University and the MIT Sloan School of Management. He lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.
During her eight years as senior editor of Fast Company, Polly LaBarre wrote influential articles on strategy, creativity and personal success, and cohosted its signature Real Time conferences, at which executives, entrepreneurs, and innovators debated the future of business and leadership. She lives in New York City.