John Franklin Bardin was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 30, 1916. Bardin's teenage years were marked by great loss, as he lost most of his immediate family to various ailments. After turning thirty, Bardin decided to move to New York City, where he would go on to have a successful and varied career. In New York, Bardin worked as an executive in an advertising agency, published ten novels, and taught creative writing and advertising at the New School for Social Research.
Bardin is perhaps best known for his contributions to the crime fiction genre. In 1946, Bardin entered a period of intense creativity and wrote three crime novels that initially received little attention. One of these novels, "Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly," was not even published in America until the late 1960s. However, these works have since gained recognition as cult novels and are highly regarded by many. Bardin's best-known works, "The Deadly Percheron," "The Last of Philip Banter," and "Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly," experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1970s when they were discovered by British readers. In addition to his work in advertising, public relations, and journalism, Bardin resided in New York City until his death.