Author Nelson C. Nye was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1907. Before becoming a ranch hand in 1935, he wrote publicity releases and book reviews for the Cincinnati Times-Star and the Buffalo Evening News. He published his first novel in 1936 and also writes under the pseudonyms Drake C. Denver and Clem Colt. He served with the U.S. Army Field Artillery during World War II. He worked as the horse editor for Texas Livestock Journal from 1949-1952 and was the frontier fiction reviewer for the New York Times Book Review from 1958-1962. He has won two Golden Spur Awards, one for best Western reviewer and critic and the other for the novel Long Run.