Worked as an investigator in the 1950s with New York City's Dept. of Welfare, where he became very familiar with gang members. His first novel 'The Warriors' was published when he was 40 years old. Ostensibly about city gangs, it was actually based on the Greek history known as 'Anabasis,' written by Athens' Xenophon in 4th Century B.C. It tells of the long adventurous trek home of Greek
mercenaries, after their leader, Cyrus the Younger, is killed during the war against Persia.
