JIM THOMPSON was born on September 27, 1906, in Anadarko, Oklahoma Territory. He was the author of twenty-nine novels, all but three of which were published as paperback originals. He also co-wrote two screenplays (for the Stanley Kubrick films The Killing and Paths of Glory) and several of his novels have been filmed by American and French directors, including The Killer Inside Me, After Dark My Sweet, and The Grifters. He died in Los Angeles on April 7, 1977.

ROBERT POLITO is a poet and the author of Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award and an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He teaches in the writing program at New School University in New York City.