Jack Woodford was born Josiah Pitts Woolfolk, and raised in Chicago by his grandmother. His father was a physician who moved his practice from Sioux City, Iowa to Chicago and then went on to teach diagnosis at Rush Medical College. Woodford wrote erotic pulp novels and nonfiction. His books were very successful, and in the 1930s he founded Jack Woodford Press. In addition to his popular books on how to write and get published, he was famous for writing Trial and Error, which caused a scandal with its frank description of the publishing industry.