Thomas Berger was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 20, 1924. During World War II, he enlisted in the Army and served in England and Germany as part of the Medical Corps. He received a baccalaureate degree with honors from the University of Cincinnati in 1948 and pursued graduate work in English at Columbia University until 1951. He worked as a librarian at the Tamiment Institute and Library in New York and as a summary writer for The New York Times Index. His first novel, Crazy in Berlin, was published in 1958. He wrote numerous books during his lifetime including Killing Time, Who Is Teddy Villanova?, Adventures of the Artificial Woman, Sneaky People, The Houseguest, Meeting Evil,… Suspects, Best Friends, and The Feud. Several of his novels were adapted into films including Little Big Man starring Dustin Hoffman and Neighbors starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. He died on July 13, 2014 at the age of 89.