Martin Archer Flavin was born in San Francisco in 1883 and attended the University of Chicago from 1903 to 1905. He had eleven plays produced on Broadway between 1923 and 1937, including The Criminal Code (1929).
His novels include Mr. Littlejohn (1940), Corporal Cat (1941), Journey in the Dark (1943) and The Enchanted (1947). Journey in the Dark won the Harper Prize and the 1944 Pulitzer Prize. He died in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, in 1967.