Born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 16, 1920, Albert Sidney Fleischman grew up in San Diego, California. He describes his father as a natural storyteller who told his children stories filled with dramatic effects. His mother, Sadie Solomon Fleischman, read her son such books as Aesop's Fables and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book that most influenced Fleischman was Robin Hood, which he termed his first great reading experience. He would later write folktales modeled on the American "tall tale" tradition.

Fleischman served in the naval reserve during World War II aboard a destroyer escort in the Philippines, Borneo, and China. In 1942 he married Betty Taylor, and the couple had three children. After the war Fleischman began writing short stories and returned to San Diego State College to complete his degree. He graduated in 1949 and went to work as a reporter for a...