William Ard was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 8 1922. After studying at Dartmouth College, he enlisted in the Marines. Released back into civilian life in his late twenties, he decided to devote himself to writing, and his first novel, The Perfect Frame, appeared in 1951. It marked the debut of his continuing character of Timothy Dane, a New York private investigator who would go on to appear in a further nine novels.
In 1953, Ard moved to Clearwater, Florida, and it is here where he wrote most of his 30 novels. In 1959, he created two new characters, Danny Fontaine and Lou Largo (Largo was also a private investigator based in New York). Ard also completed two Lou Largo novels; the remainder were written by Lawrence Block and John Jakes.
Under the pseudonym ‘Jonas Ward’, the author wrote six novels in the BUCHANAN western series, the last, Buchanan on the Prod, completed after his death on March 12 1960, by Robert Silverberg. The series was later continued by Brian Garfield and William R. Cox, and are all available through Piccadilly Publishing.