Max Byrd was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in the year 1942. He received his education at King's College, Cambridge, England, and Harvard. Byrd is a scholar of 18th century English literature and has written several scholarly books on the subject, including "Visits to Bedlam" and "London Transformed." He is also a winner of the Shamus Award for best paperback private detective novel.
Byrd is the author of a series of detective novels, featuring the private investigator Mike Haller. His first detective novel, "California Thriller," won the Shamus Award for best paperback original in 1981. The series includes "Finders, Weepers" and "Fly Away, Jill." In addition to his detective novels, Byrd has also written four historical novels: "Grant: A Novel," "Jefferson: A Novel," "Jackson: A Novel," and "Shooting the Sun."
Byrd has had a distinguished career in academia, teaching English at Yale and UC Davis, and serving as a visiting professor at Stanford. He has also lectured at UC Berkeley, Warwick University, the Sorbonne, and Monticello. He has served as the editor of the scholarly journal Eighteenth-Century Studies and has had his articles and book reviews published in numerous publications, including the Yale Review, New York Times Book Review, New Republic, and Woodrow Wilson Quarterly. Currently, Byrd serves as the president of the board of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.