Jerome Odlum was born August 6, 1905 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He served a term in Stillwater Prison for forgery, and after an aborted parole, was released on August 25, 1935. He then proceeded to pitch a novel based on his prison experiences to Bobbs-Merrill, who published the work as Each Dawn I Die in 1938 (filmed the next year with James Cagney and George Raft). Odlum became a screenwriter, under contract to Paramount, and wrote several more novels and film screenplays. With his habit of writing bad checks, he continued to run afoul of the law, and spent more time in prison in the 1940s. He died of a stroke on March 2, 1954, at his home in Los Angeles, California.