Kenneth Millar was born in Los Gatos, California and raised in Canada. In 1938, he graduated from the University of West Ontario. In the same year, he married Margaret Ellis Sturm who also wrote detective novels under the name Margaret Millar. He worked at the University of Toronto and taught English and History at a prep school and then at the University of Michigan. From 1944 till 1946, he served as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. In this period, a few of his non-genre novels were published under his own name. After the war, he returned to Michigan and obtained a Ph.D. in English Literature in 1951. In 1949, his first 'Lew Archer' (a private detective in Southern California) novel was published under the pseudonym of John Macdonald. Later this name was changed, first to John Ross Macdonald and then to Ross Macdonald to avoid confusion with John D. MacDonald. In 1974, he was awarded the Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement from the Mystery Writers of America.