Richard Jessup was born January 2, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia. He spent his early years in a local orphanage before running away as a merchant seaman. A voracious reader, he left the sea behind and began a career as a fulltime writer. He wrote more than 60 books, most of them paperback originals—westerns, crime novels, espionage, social dramas, sea adventures—either under his real name or as Richard Telfair. As Telfair, he wrote the Wyoming Jones western series and the Montgomery Nash spy thrillers for Gold Medal Books. Jessup's best known work, The Cincinnati Kid in 1964, was filmed with Steve McQueen and Ann‐Margaret. His last novel, Threat, was published in 1981. Jessup died from cancer on October 22, 1982, in Nokomis, Florida.