JACK D. HUNTER

According to Wikipedia: "Jack Dayton Hunter (June 4, 1921 – April 13, 2009) was an American author and artist, best known for his novel The Blue Max, which was made into a film of the same name.

Hunter was born in Hamilton, Ohio, on June 4, 1921, the son of Whitney G. and Irene Dayton Hunter. While his father, whose long career with the DuPont Company began as a paint color evaluator because of his sensitivity to colors, Hunter was red-green blind. He graduated with a B.A. degree in journalism from Penn State University in 1943.

Because he spoke German, having taught himself and then studied it in college, Hunter was sent to Germany just after the war ended. After the war, he worked in various journalistic capacities, as a public relations executive for Du Pont, and as a speech writer in Washington D.C.

His first novel was The Blue Max. Hunter, who dabbled in water colors, painted a cover image for the book.

Hunter wrote 17 novels, including The Ace, published in 2008. Like The Blue Max, The Ace deals with World War I aviation, but focuses on the human costs and chaotic conditions that bedeviled the Americans in their need to build a world-class air force virtually overnight."