Nelson Johnson's family lived in Atlantic County before the city was founded, and he is himself a lifelong resident of Hammonton, New Jersey. He practiced law for 30 years, and was attorney for the Atlantic City Planning Board at the time many applications for the building of the casinos were approved. Fascinated by the complicated history of Atlantic City, Nelson spent almost two decades interviewing, researching and writing to create Boardwalk Empire.Norman Hunter was born in 1899 in Sydenham, London. After leaving school and finishing what he described as a 'course of all-in wrestling with typewriters', he became an advertising copywriter. He also began, in 1915, giving performances of… conjuring, and made over two hundred appearances at Maskelyne and Devants. His first Branestawm book was published in 1933. After the Second World War, Norman Hunter moved to South Africa, where he continued to work in advertising. Conjuring was still one of his spare time occupations. He returned to England in 1969 where he lived near the river at Staines until his death in 1995.