William F. Nolan

Born in 1928 in Kansas City Missouri, William F. Nolan attended the Kansas City Art Institute and worked as an artist for Hallmark Cards. He moved to California in the late 1940s and studied at San Diego State College. In his mid-twenties, he began concentrating on writing rather than art and, in 1952, was introduced by fellow Midwest native (and established writer) Ray Bradbury to another young up-and-coming author, Charles Beaumont. Moving to the Los Angeles area in 1953, Nolan became (with Bradbury, Beaumont, and Richard Matheson) part of the "inner core" of the soon-to-be highly influential "Southern California School." By 1956 Nolan was a full-time writer. Since 1951 he has sold more than 1500 stories, articles, books, and other works. He has lectured widely, taught a creative writing seminar at Bowling Green State University, and appeared on countless panels and in discussions at conventions. Away from the keys, he has raced sports cars, acted in films and TV and worked as an illustrator and cartoonist.

With over eighty books to his credit, Nolan is a prolific, multi-genre master whose works have been selected for more than three hundred anthologies and textbooks, including many "Best of the Year" volumes. Among a host of honors, Nolan has been cited for excellence by the American Library Association, is twice winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Special Award, and was named an official "Living Legend" by the International Horror Guild in 2002. He has written extensively for films and television and has won Golden Medallion television awards at two European film festivals.

Nolan's best-selling global classic, Logan's Run (a million copies sold in the USA alone), spawned a hit MGM film and a CBS television series, and there are now two dozen active Logan websites around the world. Warner Bros. is currently in pre-production on a new, mega-budget major film version of Logan's Run.

With more than 75 books and some 750 magazine and newspaper pieces to his credit, William Francis Nolan is a one-man word factory. Although he is the author of 13 novels, it is in his role as a short fiction writer for over 50 years that Nolan has helped craft modern horror. Joe R. Lansdale has called him "one of the greats of the horror-suspense field." Stephen King has acknowledged Nolan as "an expert in the art and science of scaring the hell out of people," and Ray Bradbury has spoken of Nolan's ability "to create an atmosphere of ultimate terror."

Nolan's suspenseful short stories have been selected for scores of anthologies and textbooks and he is twice winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Special Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His work for television has garnered two Golden Medallions in Europe. Among many other honors and awards, Nolan was voted "Living Legend" for 2002 by the International Horror Guild, has been cited for excellence by the American Library Association, has received an Honorary Doctorate in SF, and won a career commendation from The City of Los Angeles.

At the moment, Nolan is in Bend, Oregon, where he is deeply involved in writing major biographies on Dashiell Hammett and writer Frederick Faust (best known as "Max Brand").