Richard Adams was born May 9, 1920, in Newbury, Berkshire, England. After earning a degree from Worcester College, Oxford, he married Barbara Elizabeth Acland on September 20, 1949; the couple subsequently had two children. At the age of fifty, Adams, who worked as a British civil servant and had never published anything, produced a bulky typewriter manuscript.

His story about rabbits had delighted his daughters and he was anxious to have it published. Unfortunately, his animal fantasy was turned down by four publishers and four literary agents.

Finally a small publishing house, Rex Collings, accepted the manuscript. The 2,000 copies printed by Collings sold surprisingly well. When Penguin reprinted the book in paperback and promoted it as a novel for children, it sold over a million copies. In the United States Macmillan then printed a hard cover edition which became a best seller, selling over 700,000 copies. Adams's unwanted manuscript...