Born on April 23, 1923, Avram Davidson was a medic in the Marine Corps during World War II, fought with the Israeli Army in the 1948 war for independence, and began writing in the early 1950s as a Talmudic scholar. He eventually produced nineteen acclaim novels including Joyleg (1962 with Ward Moore), Mutiny in Space (1964), Kar-Chee [Rogue Dragon [1965], The Kar-Chee Reign [1966]) , a pair of mysterious as by Ellery Queen (And on the Eighth Day [1964] and The Fourth Side of the Triangle [1965]), Clash of Star-Kings (1966), Vergil Magus (The Phoenix in The Mirror [1969], Vergil in Averno [1987], The Scarlet Fig ; or, Slowly through a Land of Stone [2005]) The Island Under the Earth (1969), Peregrine (Peregrine: Primus [1971], Peregrine: Secundus [1981]), Ursus of Ultima Thule (1973), and THE BOSS IN THE WALL (1998 with Grania Davis).

His more than two hundred short stories and essays were collected in Crimes & Chaos (1962), Or All the Seas with Oysters (1962), What Strange Stars and Skies (1965), Strange Seas and Shores (1971), The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy (1975; World Fantasy Award Winner), Polly Charms, The Sleeping Woman (1977), The Redward Edward Papers (1978), The Best of Avram Davidson (1979), Avram Davidson: Collected Fantasies (1982), And Don’t Forget the One Red Rose (1986), Weird Tales no. 293 (Winter 1988-1989, special Avram Davidson issue), The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy (1990), Adventures in Unhistory (1993), The Avram Davidson Treasury (1998), The Investigations of Avram Davidson (1999), The Last Wizard; with A Letter of Explanation (1999), El Vilvoy de las Islas (2000), Everybody Has Somebody in Heaven (2000), The Other Nineteenth Century (2001), The Beasts of the Elysian Fields by Conrad Amber (2001), ¡Limekiller! (2003), and David & Son: Peregrine Parentus and Other Tales (2016).

While at the helm of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964, Davidson also edited three volumes of The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction (13-15) and later Magic for Sale (1983).

His works garnered Davidson two Hugo (1958 Best Short Story “Or All the Seas with Oysters”; 1963 Best Professional Magazine The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) two World Fantasy (1976 Best Anthology/Collection The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy; 1979 Best Short Fiction “Naples”), and an Edgar (1962 Best Short Story “Affair at Lahore Cantonment) award. In 1986, he was given the prestigious World Fantasy Award For Life Achievement.