James D. Houston is the coauthor with his wife, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, of the bestselling Farewell to Manzanar, and author of six other novels, including Continental Drift, Love Life, and The Last Paradise. His nonfiction works include Californians and In the Ring of Fire: A Pacific Basin Journey. He lives in Santa Cruz, California, in the house where Patty Reed spent the last years of her life.Michael Eldred gained degrees in mathematics and philosophy at Sydney University, being awarded a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1984 with a dissertation aimed at rethinking the social theories of Marx (Kapital) and Hegel (Rechtsphilosophie).