First Edition Introduction This book started on a whim several years ago. I was on vacation at a campsite beside a lake in South Texas, across from Louisiana, prepared to re-read the Matt Helm series for the umpteenth time. As I started Death of a Citizen, I began wondering just how much information Donald Hamilton had included about Matt's early days during the war. I made notes of any references to Matt's previous career, as well as biographical details. By the end of the vacation, I had finished the first dozen or so books and continued at home with the rest. As the series "aged," the war references stopped for obvious reasons, but I still got some more biographical information from the later books. At the time, I was working in a one-man shop doing professional writing for clients and had a lot of "down" time. Going through my notes and the books, I transcribed all the references into my computer, including a few favorite passages typical of Donald Hamilton's amazing descriptive talent. I organized the file into an arbitrary timeline for my own amusement. Once this was done, I had a fairly accurate, if rather sketchy, portrayal of Matt Helm's early career and biography, enough for about a 25-page essay. Other than trivia for myself and other Matt Helm fans, it had no practical purpose whatsoever. I toyed with the idea of sending it to Donald Hamilton in the hopes he might be persuaded to give us a prequel, but gave up the idea as presumptuous. I saved the file to a disk and pretty much forgot about it.
