People like John D. Fitzgerald

John Dennis Fitzgerald (February 3, 1906 – May 21, 1988) was an American author, most notable for The Great Brain series of children's books.

Fitzgerald was born in Price, Utah, the son of an Irish Catholic father and a Scandinavian mother who was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He had two older brothers, Thomas (1902-1988; the basis for the character known as the Great Brain) and William; two younger brothers, Charles and Gerald; and an older sister, Isabelle (known as "Belle").

He left Utah in 1925, at the age of 18, and held a variety of jobs, including playing in a jazz band, working at a bank and working for a steel company.

Fitzgerald published his first novel, Papa Married a Mormon, in 1955. Other novels for adults about late nineteenth and early twentieth century Utah followed. Fitzgerald had many stories published in magazines, and he also co-wrote two textbooks about creative writing.