William F. Nolan, author of the best-selling Logan trilogy of novels (Logan's Run, Logan's World, Logan's Search), spearheaded a group of West Coast writers whose emphasis on style and literacy provided a lasting legacy of higher literary quality in science fiction.

Films and the pulps strongly influenced the imaginative life of Nolan as a child, and they remain major influences in his work. The only child of Michael Cahill and Bernadette Mariana Kelly Nolan, he was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Deciding to become a commercial artist, he created comic strips for his high-school newspaper; in the summer of 1945 he sold greeting-card art and verses to Hallmark cards; and he studied at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1945 to 1947. Moving to California, Nolan studied at San Diego State College (1948) and did outdoor murals in San Diego's Balboa Park.

As his interest in writing increased, Nolan moved to Los...