Dollar author Brian Fox was actually born Willis Todhunter Ballard on December 13, 1903 in Cleveland, Ohio. After trying to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an electrical engineer. He realized he did not like working for anyone and found himself quickly fired from every job he took. He found he had a way with words and so he took jobs as a staff writer for Warner Brothers and Columbia in the early 1920s. Often going uncredited and going nowhere he began his writing career in 1927 and since then produced over 100 novels and over 50 movie and television screenplays and stories. He wrote over 1000 short stories and novelettes which appeared in pulp magazines and elite publications such as The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, This Week and McCalls. Known for his Westerns and mystery novels, he was a major crime writer for Black Mask creating the character Bill Lennox, with a long, prolific career, often fast, sometimes proto-hardboiled, frequently complicated, usually slick and with human warmth. After World War II he turned to writing western novels exclusively and turned out an amazing 78 books. He was past vice-president of the Western Writers of America. He never won any MWA award, although he did capture the 1965 Western Writers of America Spur Award for his novel ‘Gold in California’ (1965). In the 1970s he retired to Florida and passed away on December 27, 1980 in Mt. Dora, Florida. Ballard used a number of aliases such as Brian Agar, P D Ballard, W.T. Ballard, Parker Bonner, Sam Bowie, Walt Bruce, Hunter D'Allard, Brian Fox, John Grange, Harrison Hunt (with Norbert Davis), John Hunter, Neil MacNeil, Clint Reno, John Shepherd, Jack Slade, Clay Turner. As Brian Fox he turned out the Dollar book ‘A Dollar to Die For’.

Joseph John Millard was born in Canby, Minnesota on January 14, 1908, the fourth child of rancher Frank Earnest Millard and his wife Alice A. He received his education at the Pioneer School of Business in St. Paul, Minnesota, graduating in 1926, before joining an advertising agency. He subsequently worked as advertising manager on Northwest Furniture Digest in Minneapolis before becoming an account executive with Minneapolis-based Kraff Advertising Agency and Chicago-based Industrial Advertising Associates.

In Chicago, he began editing How To Sell magazine, subsequently editing and publishing National Mortician, before turning freelance as a writer in 1936.

He was a prolific contributor to pulp magazines, including Thrilling Mystery, G-Man Detective, Exciting Detective, Detective Novels Magazine, Popular Detective, RAF Aces, Exciting Western, Popular Sports, Sky Fighters, Fantastic Adventures, Amazing Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories (as N. J. Westwood) and Startling Stories in the 1940s before contributing articles to Bluebook. He eventually contributed to around 100 different magazines and some 25 trade journals, including Holiday, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping and Argosy. Joe sometimes used the alias N.J. Westwood. Joe wrote six books in the ‘Dollar’ series - For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, A Coffin Full of Dollars, The Devil’s Dollar Sign, The Million Dollar Bloodhunt and Blood for a Dirty Dollar.

Millard was married to Amy Leone Lee on February 14, 1931 and had one son. He died on February 18, 1989. - Steve Holland