James Purdy was born in Ohio in 1923. After serving in the Army, he attended the University of Puebla in Mexico before receiving an M.A. in Romance languages at the University of Chicago and spending some time at the University of Madrid. He taught at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin from 1949 to 1953. During his lifetime he wrote about 20 novels as well as numerous short stories and plays. Some of his best-known works include the following: Color of Darkness (1957), Malcolm (1959), The Nephew (1960), Cabot Wright Begins (1964), I Am Elijah Thrush (1972), In a Shallow Grave (1976), and Narrow Rooms (1977). He also wrote the Sleepers in Moon-Crowned Valleys trilogy, which comprised of… Jeremy's Version (1970), The House of the Solitary Maggot (1974), and Mourners Below (1981). He died on March 13, 2009 at the age of 94.