Walter Mosley

Walter Ellis Mosley was born on January 12, 1952 in Los Angeles, California. He is an American author and novelist who is widely recognized for his works of crime fiction. His best-selling historical mysteries feature the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, who is a black private investigator as well as World War II veteran currently living in the Watts neighborhood located in Los Angeles, California. Mosley himself was born in California and his mother Ella was Jewish and a personnel clerk while his father Leroy was an African American originally from Louisiana who was a custodian at a Los Angeles public school. He was a clerk in the US army during World War II, the army still segregated at the time. His parents attempted to marry in 1951. Although marriage was legal in California, they were refused a marriage license.