Robb White once commented: "The fact that I am a writer is not because I'm a genius, nor have a great talent, nor even that accusation of well-wishers, `flair.' I have rigid discipline. When working for DuPont as a construction engineer in the miserable snow of New Castle, Pennsylvania, I came back every night to one dank room in a boarding house and wrote--every night--from eight until two in the morning. Even now, when I don't have to anymore, I come into this elegant office . . . at eight in the morning and go to work."

Robb White has led a life filled with adventure and mishap, as he related in his Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS) essay. The son of an Episcopalian missionary, White was born in the Philippine Islands and lived among the Igorots, a tribe whom he describes as "a handsome and fearsome people...