Annabel and Edgar Johnson have written many books together for young adults. They spent twelve years traveling the West in a small camptrailer, finding ideas and material for books in the back roads and deserted towns of the Rockies. At first their books featured people and events from lost history, but in later years they began to set books in contemporary times or, like Prisoner of Psi, in a near-future setting which allows them to treat contemporary subjects along with interpersonal and ecological issues.

Edgar Johnson was born in a Montana mining town. As a young man he tried many different occupations, including railroad hand, baseball player, and musician. In the 1940s he went to New York City to study art. He presented exhibits there of ceramics, woodcarving, and jewelry. In New York he also met Annabel, who had grown up in St. Louis...