E. W. Shaffer was born in Cumberland, Maryland and educated at the University of Maryland and Southern Illinois University. Trained in the arts and sciences, he maintained a dual career working in various fields of chemistry and in the fine arts and literature as a painter, sculptor, conceptual artist and poet. His works of art have been widely exhibited in the U.S. and his creative work has appeared, at times under the name of Mike Shaffer, in various newspapers and periodicals.