After serving as a pilot with the U.S. military,[2] he began publishing science fiction with the story "Cinderella, Inc." in the December 1952 issue of the magazine Imagination.
His military background enabled him to bring a certain realism to his portrayal of action and intrigue, which counterpointed the more fantastical elements of his stories.
In many ways, his characters are science-fiction descendants of Odysseus, the scheming fast thinker who dazzles his opponents with his footwork.
[3]His stories became a perennial favorite with readers, and then ... "he hit a winning streak in the late 1960s in a series which seemed straight out of Star Trek ...
Taken together, counting number of titles, the stories constitute almost one third of Anvil's science fiction output, totaling something like four hundred thousand words of writing.