Russell Bruce Freedman was born in San Francisco on October 11, 1929, the son of Irene Gordon Freedman and Louis Freedman, the manager of the West Coast sales office for Macmillan Publishing Company. The Freedman home in San Francisco's Richmond District was filled with books, and occasionally such distinguished writers as John Steinbeck and William Saroyan dined with the Freedmans. It is not surprising that a boy growing up in such surroundings would become a writer himself. Freedman attended San Jose State College from 1947 to 1949 and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1951.

Upon graduating, he was inducted into the army and sent to Korea from 1951 to 1953, where he served in the Counter-intelligence Corps.

Once out of the army, Freedman went to work for the Associated Press in San Francisco as a reporter and editor. In 1956 he became a television publicity writer...