Who is George Clayton Johnson

George Clayton Johnson (1929- ) was born in a barn and brought up in rural Wyoming during the Depression. From a poor family, his mother an alcoholic, he spent much of his youth in an orphanage and fairly little in school -- but he had to repeat the sixth grade and dropped out of school entirely in the eighth. He briefly served as a telegraph operator then draftsman in the Army, enrolled at now Auburn University under the G.I. Bill, quit to return to his travels around the U.S.A., working as an draftsman, before deciding he wanted to become a writer. In 1960 the first story Johnson ever wrote served as the basis for the Rat Pack movie Ocean's Eleven, although most of the details were changed for the film. His reading interests ranged from Shakespeare to pulp magazines.