Ross Macdonald

Ross Macdonald (born Dec. 13, 1915, Los Gatos, Calif., U.S.—died July 11, 1983, Santa Barbara, Calif.) was an American mystery writer who is credited with elevating the detective novel to the level of literature with his compactly written tales of murder and despair. Though born in California, Millar spent almost all his youth in Canada. He studied at Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate Institute (near Toronto), the University of Western Ontario (B.A., 1938), and the University of Toronto...