The Da Vinci Machine: Tales of the Population Explosion

Earl Conrad (1912-1986), birth name Cohen, was an American author who penned at least twenty works of biography, history, and criticism, including books in collaboration. At least one that he 'ghost' wrote was the biography of actor Errol Flynn, titled My Wicked, Wicked Ways.

Conrad was born to Eli and Minnie Cohen in Auburn, New York, into a Jewish family with nine siblings. He was "reared in the Judaic tradition" but chose to Anglicize his name when he began his career as a professional journalist. He wished to be a writer from a young age, and his early experience included a stint at the Auburn Advertiser-Journal.

He married Anna Alyse Abrams in 1938, and they had one son, Michael Earl Conrad. The Conrads lived in San Francisco at least during the 1971-1972 period. In the early 1980s, they lived in Coronado, California. Some of his papers are in the local history collection of the Cayuga Community College in Auburn. He died on January 17, 1986, of complications from lymphoma.