Michael L. Cook Collection on Michael Avallone

Michael Avallone was born October 27, 1924 in New York, New York. He was one of seventeen children born to Michael Angelo and Marie Antoinette Avallone. Tragedy struck the family when his father, a stone mason, lost his business and home during the Great Depression. Michael Avallone experienced a love for the English language at a very young age, and thrived on pulps and their fast paced, energetic story lines. He married twice, first to Lucille Asero in 1949 and then to Frances Weinstein May 27, 1960. He has three children: Stephen (from marriage with Lucille Asero), Susan, and David (from marriage with Frances Weinstein). During World War Two he served in the United States Army from 1943-1946, in the European Theatre. He has claimed that his experiences during the Great Depression and WWII have served as an inspiration for his writings. He worked as a freelance writer, editor, cartoonist, film critic, and a creative writing teacher for high schools and colleges. He was a guest lecturer on short stories and mystery writing and he served as the Chairman of the Motion Picture Awards Committee from 1965-1967. He was a member of Mystery Writers of America (MWA), and served as the New York Chapter Director, from 1962-1966. Michael Avallone got his start writing sports pulps and moved his way up to editing men's magazines. He served as the editor for the MWA newsletter from 1962-1965. During his writing career he has managed to turn out more than 1,000 published works under more than a dozen pseudonyms. He has authored in virtually every genre from gothic and detective to poetry, essays, and movie reviews. He believed that a professional writer should be able to write on any subject. Some of his writing highlights include the Ed Noon detective series, movie novelizations and TV novelizations.

He had the reputation of the "Fastest Typewriter in the East" and claimed to have written a book in a day and a half. He died February 26, 1999.