Clyde Robert Bulla (1914–2007) was born on a farm near King City, Missouri. He went to a one-room country school. Reading and writing were his favorite subjects, and by the time he was seven, Bulla knew he wanted to be a writer. After years of writing magazine stories and novels and working on his hometown newspaper, he found that he really wanted to write for children. More than 70 of his books for boys and girls have been published.