Samuel S. Taylor was born on October 11, 1903 in New York City. Upon receiving a medical discharge from the U. S. Coast Guard in 1943, he joined the Army Signal Corps as an expert consultant on training films, writing scripts for Army posts. He became the main speech writer for Jack Warner, head of Warner Bros., and wrote a few screenplays. Influenced by the writings of Raymond Chandler, Taylor published his first crime novel in 1949, Sleep No More, featuring detective Neal Cotton. He would go on to write two more Cotton mysteries in the 1950s and a handful of short stories. Brenda is his only novel written as Lehi Zane. Taylor died in February of 1994 in California.