"YOU’VE heard of the Ozark Mountains? Well, I was born down among them, June 19, 1907, at Farmington, Mo.

Why am I writing tall yarns? The urge to write began to annoy me at a tender age, but, for obvious reasons, I carefully concealed it from friend and foe, hoping it would go away. Unfortunately, it didn’t. A little less than two years ago, I found it was annoying me too much for comfort, so I quit my job, gleefully thumbed my nose at my boss, and took to the tall timber, resolved to come home with my typewriter, or upon it. Before I had time to more than catch my breath, I found I had sold three stories.

I started writing science-fiction, frankly, because I enjoyed reading it. It seemed, and still seems, great stuff. Yes, I went to college. Thinking back over the matter now, I can’t understand why I did, but it seemed the thing to do at the time."

(Robert Moore Wiliams)