William Hjortsberg was born in New York City in 1941. After studying for a few years at Dartmouth College, Yale School of Drama and Stanford University, in whose magazine he published several stories, Hjortsberg decided to devote himself entirely to writing novels, film scripts and newspaper articles for magazines such as Esquire, New York Times Book Review, and San Francisco Focus among many others. He has written several screenplays for film, such as "Legend" (1985), directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Cruise, or "The Heart of the Angel" (1987) – based on his novel "Falling Angel"– directed by Alan Parker and starring Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro. His novels include "Gray Matters" (1971), a scientific fiction set in a world devastated by World War II, and "The Fallen Angel" (1978), a police horror story translated into more than twelve languages.