The Gangs of San Francisco
Herbert Asbury was born into a strictly Methodist family in Missouri in 1889.  His pious background and his subsequent rejection of Methodism greatly influenced both his philosophy of life and his career as reporter and author.  Indeed, many of his books deal with the darker, seamier side of American life.  He died in 1963 of chronic lung problems, the legacy of a gas-attack in France during the first World War.