Born in Los Angeles on February 25, 1914, Frank Bonham attended Glendale College and served in the army during World War II before devoting himself to a writing career. A prolific writer, Bonham has published hundreds of short stories for magazines such as McCall's and the Saturday Evening Post, dozens of western novels, and numerous television scripts, particularly for popular western shows of the 1950s and 1960s.

Bonham's early books for young adults were adventure tales, but in the 1960s he became interested in the problems of juvenile delinquents and the life of minorities in American cities.

He visited juvenile offenders in jail and began to write novels for young people about minority youths growing up in urban environments. These books, which include Viva Chicano, are known as Bonham's Dogtown novels.