Robert Olen Butler was born in Granite City, Illinois. He served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971, first as a counter-intelligence special agent for the Army and later as a translator. After Vietnam he had several jobs before he joined Fairchild Publications where he worked as editor-in-chief. He also writes mainstream fiction. He is the creator of 'Christopher Marlow Cobb', a Chicago newspaper reporter and spy during World War I. Visit also this site.