Richard Powell

Richard Powell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Princeton University then worked at the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger newspaper. After ten years, he joined the advertising agency N. W. Ayer & Son. He began to write fiction in the 1940s. His first novel, Don't Catch Me, was published in 1943. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army as Gen. MacArthur's news agent. After the war, he returned to N.W. Ayer, where he rose to vice president of information services in 1952. His novel The Philadelphian, published in 1957, was a huge success, spending more than six months on the bestseller list, and in 1958, he left advertising to write full-time. He wrote 18 novels in all over the course of his career.