William W. Johnstone

William W. Johnstone (1938–2004) was an American novelist born in Missouri and raised in the South. He began writing around 1970, though his first book, The Devil's Kiss, was not published until 1979; over the following twenty-five years he produced roughly two hundred novels across westerns, horror, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic survivalist fiction. His best-known work includes the long-running Ashes series, a post-nuclear survivalist saga that opens with Out of the Ashes, alongside the Mountain Man and First Mountain Man westerns and the Eagles series. He reportedly considered The Last of the Dog Team his personal favorite among his books. Johnstone died in Knoxville, Tennessee, at sixty-five; his estate has continued publishing new novels under his name, credited to his niece J. A. Johnstone.