Elliott Chaze was born in Mamu, Louisiana. He went to high school in Alexandria, Louisiana, and graduated in 1932. After high school he attended three universities, finally receiving his B.A. from from Oklahoma University in 1937. He became a reporter for the New Orleans Bureau of the Associated Press shortly before Pearl Harbor, then served in the 11th Airborne Divison of the U.S. Army during World War II as a technical sergeant. After the war he remained in Japan for a time during the American occupation, then transferred to the AP's Denver office. In his spare time he wrote articles and short stories for magazines such as The New Yorker and Redbook and, occasionally, novels. His first novel, The Stainless Steel Kimono, was published in 1947, and his second novel, The Golden Tag, was published in 1950. In 1951, he moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and worked for the Hattiesburg American where he spent twenty years as a reporter and award-winning columnist then as city editor from 1970-1980. After he had retired from the Hattiesburg American, he wrote three more novels before his death in 1990.