Robert Lowell Moore Jr., was born on October 31, 1925 in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Middlesex School, Belmont Hill School and Harvard College. He published several novels using information gathered from travelling and his experiences as main ideas. In 1963 he joined the US Army Special Forces as a civilian with special permission from President John F. Kennedy, . He trained for almost a year and then went with the Special Forces to Vietnam. His experiences in Vietnam served as the background material for "The Green Berets" which was published in 1965. Other titles include "The French connection" and the Happy Hooker.
Bonnie C. Wade is Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley. One of two general editors of the Global Music Series, she is also the author of another volume in the series, Music in Japan (OUP, 2005), in addition to numerous other titles.