Robert Kimmel Smith began dreaming of becoming a writer at the age of eight, when he spent three months in bed reading while recovering from rheumatic fever. He enrolled in Brooklyn College in 1947, and served in the U.S. Army, in Germany. In 1954 he married Claire Medney, his editor and literary agent. They have two children: Heidi and Roger. After writing advertising copy, Robert Kimmel Smith became a full-time writer in 1970.