Mickey Spillane was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 9, 1918. He briefly attended Fort Hays State College in Kansas, but dropped out, moved back to New York, and began his writing career in the mid-1930s. Spillane's first stories were published mostly in comic books and pulp magazines. He created Mike Danger, a private detective, and also wrote for Captain America, Captain Marvel, and The Human Torch. During WW II Spillane worked as a flying instructor for the U.S. Army Air Force. Achieving the rank of captain by the time, he left the service, and returned with his young wife in 1946 to New York. I, the Jury was written in only nine days, but it became such success that Spillane quickly… produced six more Hammer novels, five of them published between 1950 and 1952. The Long Wait sold 3 million copies in a single week in 1952. On a list complied in 1967 of all the best-selling books published in America between 1895 and 1965, seven of the top twenty-nine were written by Spillane. Most of Spillane's short fiction was produced in the 1950s and published in Manhunt and such men's magazines as Cavalier and Male. Between 1953 and 1961 Spillane stopped writing full-length novels after converting to the Jehovah's Witnesses, and between 1973 and 1989 for sixteen years, when he advertised Miller Lite beer. In the early '50s, Spillane also became involved with a circus and did some trampoline work, as well as being shot out of a cannon. In 1962 Spillane brought Hammer back with The Girl Hunters, which was followed by four more titles. In 1995 the Mystery Writers of America presented Spillane the Grand Master award. In the mid-1990s, he returned to comic books, by co-creating a futuristic Mike Danger. Spillane has also written two books for children. The Day the Sea Rolled Back, which earned him a Junior Literary Guild Award. He died at the age of 88 on July 17, 2006 following a long illness.