Charles Gordon Booth, one of the earliest writers of hardboiled fiction, was born in Manchester, England, on February 12, 1896. After attending school in Manchester, Booth continued his education in Canada, joining the Canadian army during WWI. While in the hospital, he started writing stories. After the war, Booth moved to San Diego, where he made a living writing fiction, and become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1930. His career began by selling to the pulps and by 1926 he sold his first novel, Sinister House, which was first serialized in Mystery Magazine. He published eight more mysteries over the next 25 years and became a Hollywood scriptwriter in the late 1930s, winning an Academy Award for best story for The House on 92nd Street in 1945. Booth died in Beverly Hills, California, on May 22, 1949.