MacKinlay Kantor was born in Webster City, Iowa, on February 4, 1904. His mother, Effie McKinlay, was the editor of the Webster City Daily News. Kantor's writing career began on this newspaper when he was seventeen. His first novel, Diversey, was published in 1928 -- he was twenty four years old. The book was not a success and Kantor returned to writing for newspapers in Iowa. In 1934, he published Long Remember which became his first best seller. Hollywood bought the novel and Kantor moved to California to work as a screenwriter. World War II cut short his screenwriting career. As a war correspondent, he covered the air battles in Europe. In 1945, Kantor published Glory for Me, which became the film The Best Years of Our Lives. Ten years later, Andersonville was published. Kantor was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this Civil War novel. During the course of his career, MacKinlay Kantor published thirty-two books and hundreds of short stories, essays, poems, and articles. He died on October 11, 1977, at the age of seventy-three.