Author: Ben Haas
Alternate names: John Benteen, Thorne Douglas, Richard Meade, Ben Elliott, Sam Webster, Ken Barry, William Kane, William King, Jack Slade, Quinn Reade, John Michael Elliott.; Ben HAAS; Ben haas
Born: July 21, 1926
Died: October 27, 1977
Bio: Benjamin Leopold Haas was born in Charlotte , North Carolina in 1926. He dropped out of college to support his family. He was self-educated. And then he was drafted, and sent to the Philippines. Ben served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army from 1945 to 1946. Returning home, Ben went to work, married a Southern belle named Douglas Thornton Taylor from Raleigh in 1950, lived in Charlotte and in Sumter in South Carolina , and then made Raleigh his home in 1959. Ben and his wife had three sons, Joel, Michael and John. Ben held various jobs until 1961, when he was working for a steel company. He had submitted a manuscript to Beacon Books, and an offer for more came just as he was laid off at the steel company. He became a full-time writer for the rest of his life.  Writing nonstop over the next 16 years, Ben Haas would create somewhere around 130 books under his own name and a dozen pen names.
Source: http://lynn-munroe-books.com/list63/benhaas1.htm