After graduating from high school, he had undiagnosed depression, which was classified at the time as schizophrenia, and was treated in the Kings County Psychiatric Ward.
[3] Upon his graduation from Columbia, Hughart joined the United States Air Force and served from 1956 to 1960[3] where he was involved in laying mines in the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
[5] Hughart cites Alexandre Dumas, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mark Twain as major influences in his work.
[1] The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox is a series of three books about Li Kao, an ancient sage and scholar with "a slight flaw in his character",[4] and his client, later assistant, the immensely strong peasant Number Ten Ox, who narrates the story.
In the last of these, Li Kao and Number Ten Ox would die facing the Great White Serpent (a conflict alluded to in Bridge of Birds).
[1] An omnibus edition, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox was first published in 1998 by The Stars Our Destination Books in both hardback and trade paperback.
The Story of the Stone takes place in the Valley of the Sorrows where they set out to find the Laughing Prince, the murder suspect.
In an interview in 2000 Hughart blamed the end of the Master Li and Number Ten Ox series on unsympathetic and incompetent publishers.
[10] Hughart uses a "faux-oriental style"[11] with "long alliterations, poetic hyperboles, and casual references to Chinese culture"[12] and lighthearted humor.
[13] Reviewers identify many themes in Hughart's writing, from mystery, Chinese myths, humor, and thrill, to potions, magic plants, ghosts, and spells.