Roy Judson Snell wrote more than 84 novels for young adults under his own name and also using the pseudonyms David O'Hara, James Craig and Joseph Marino. His tales were mostly directed at boys, though he wrote at least one series of mysteries for girls. He also wrote some animal fantasy tales for younger children and they began with 'Little White Fox and His Artic Friends' (1916). He was later to say that he sold the book for "the great sum of $6.24". He also wrote a series entitled 'Radio- Phone Boys', which began with 'Curly Carson Listens In' (1922). Born in Laddonia, Missouri, Snell moved to the Sycamore area and there he learned his father's trade of erecting windmills. He entered Wheaton academy after his 19th birthday, graduated, and then worked his way through Wheaton College, finishing with the class of 1906. His brother's death led to him entering the ministry and he accepted the pastorate of a small church in rural Southern Illinois. After only a year he became principal of a church supported school in the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky. "A person could just as likely get shot as not there," Snell once remarked, and he added, "It was a constant struggle to see who would take over the school—the big boys or me." He eventually won and gained the respect of his students and their parents alike. He then spent two semesters' graduate study at Harvard, after which he went as a Congregationalist missionary to Alaska. While there he was responsible for over 350 Eskimos and 2,500 reindeer. He returned to the area the following year, and afterwards he earned his B.D. degree at Chicago Seminary and his master's degree from the University of Chicago. He briefly served in France with the Y.M.C.A. during World War 1, service which interrupted his new-found writing career. Once he returned to the United States he began to write in earnest. A dozen books flowed from his pen, most of them on adventure and mystery themes for youngsters, and then the author began lecturing and for the following 30 years he gave illustrated talks about his many travels. He had a lengthy career as a novelist, claiming that he often wrote 2,000 words per hour, and was later to say, "You have to develop a second personality to write. It's a hard thing to do. Oftentimes I felt like giving up the whole business." He continued, "I had all the luck on my side. If I were a young man today, I'd hesitate going into a writing career. I wouldn't know where to start. Kids don't read as much today with TV and movies. No I've had my day and I got out of it just what I wanted." Readers also got what they wanted for as a testimony to his skill, more than one and one-half million copies of his books were sold. He died in Wheaton, Illinois.