William M. Osborn was born and educated in Indiana and Michigan. He practiced law in Indiana for many years. Upon his retirement several years ago, he began researching this book about settlers and Indians, in part because the Massachusetts home of one of his father's ancestors was burned by Indians in colonial days and, according to family tradition, one of his mother's ancestors, a settler on the frontier, married a Cherokee named Lydia. That research resulted in The Wild Frontier. Osborn and his wife, Pat, spend half their time in Indiana and half in Florida."From the Hardcover edition.