Janwillem Van de Wetering was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands on February 12, 1931. He traveled extensively, both geographically and philosophically, his adventures ranging from being a motorcycle gang member to a Buddhist, a real estate salesman in Australia to an exporter in Holland. He was a police officer in Amsterdam from 1966 to 1975 and his crime novels featuring detectives Grijpstra and De Gier were based on his experiences. He also wrote a trilogy based on the time he spent at a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery and wrote children's books about a porcupine named Hugh Pine. In 1984, he received the French Grand Prix de Littrature Policire. He died on July 4, 2008 at the age of 77.
Author and illustrator, Marc Brown was born in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1946. He attended the Cleveland Institute of Art. After college, he worked numerous odd jobs before he began his career. He is most renown for creating the Arthur series. The idea for Arthur, the aardvark came one night while telling his son a bedtime story. The first title in the series was "Arthur's Nose" written in 1976. Since then, Brown has written over thirty books in the Arthur Adventure series. D. W., Arthur's sister was another character created by Brown. In addition to writing, Brown also developed the Arthur television series on PBS. Brown resides in Massachusetts.