Richard Edward Wormser was born February 2, 1908 in New York City. After graduating from Princeton University, he began a career as a prolific pulp fiction writer, at first using the name Conrad Gerson. He wrote 17 of the Nick Carter adventures for Street &s; Smith before publishing a novel under his own name, The Man With the Wax Face, in 1934. After Hollywood purchased several of his stories, he began writing screenplays, then turned to writing novelizations and TV adaptations in the 1960s. Wormser wrote over 20 original crime and western novels — winning the Western Spur Award in 1964 and 1971 for Best Juvenile Fiction and the Edgar award for The Invader in 1973 — as well as over 300 short stories and 200 novelettes. He passed away in July of 1977, in Tumacaciori, Arizona.