Educated at Stanford and Columbia, William Kerrigan has taught English literature at the state universities of Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts. He is the author and/or editor of eighteen books of literary scholarship and criticism, published by presses such as Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins. Most recently he co-edited four volumes of John Milton's works in the Random House Modern Library. Now retired and living in California, he writes mystery novels, including a series called "The Kerrigan/Seagrove Mysteries" charting the early history of the movie business in California, featuring Wallace Kerrigan (the author's grandfather) and his mistress Pearl Seagrove. He is also the author of supernatural thrillers in the "Tales of the Ghost Killers" series. The Ghost Killers of Black Ash Canyon inaugurated the series. The Passed On continued it, introducing the Sarka family and the ghost of Aleister Crowley. The latest entry, and Kerrigan's most recent novel, is California Hell, which folds the histories of Jack Parsons and Marjorie Cameron into a story set in the barren desertscapes of the California's Route 66.