Clifton Adams was born in Comanche, Oklahoma in 1919. He wrote under a few pseudonyms (Clay Randall, Jonathan Gant, and Matt Kinkaid) and won two Spur Awards, Tragg's Choice in 1969 and The Last Days of Wolf Garnett in 1970. He wrote novels in both the western and hard-boiled crime genres. He died of a heart attack in San Francisco, California on October 7, 1971.