He enrolled at the University of Iowa but part way through his studies he joined the US Army.

[2] After the war he returned to complete his education and received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Iowa, and was an instructor of literature there during the 1950s.

By 1956 he was manager of the Push Pin Studios, an advertising art agency in New York.

His novel Love Me Little was originally published under the pseudonym Amanda Vail.

The book The Cool World was first made into a play and then a movie in 1964 directed by Shirley Clarke, produced by Frederick Wiseman, and with musical score by Dizzy Gillespie.