Bob Brown lived a colorful and varied life as journalist, poet, novelist, editor, publisher, rare book dealer, world traveler, and bon vivant. His interest in the avant-garde, especially in the visual aspects of words, took him to France in 1929, where he set up the Roving Eye Press to promote his invention, the Reading Machine, which was intended to change the way people read by moving the words past the reader's eye at a speed controlled by the individual.

Robert Carlton Brown was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Robert Carlton and Cora Bracket Brown, both of whom were interested in writing and books. His father was a book publisher and rare book collector. Brown graduated from Oak Park High School, later attended by Ernest Hemingway, and went to the University of Wisconsin. There seems to have been little doubt that Brown would follow a career in writing. Explaining his...