Mickey Spillane was an American crime novelist who lived from 1918 until 2006. Mike Hammer, the detective in many of his books, was a main character. Spillane was born in Brooklyn, New York, and by the time he graduated from high school, he had sold his first tale to a pulp magazine. He was a fighter pilot in the army air corps during WWII, and his debut novel, I, the Jury, was published in 1947. Spillane is one of the most well-known mystery writers in the world, having sold over 225 million copies of his books worldwide.