Peter Kaldheim graduated in English and Classics from Dartmouth, before going on to work in publishing (as head copy editor at Harcourt then acquiring editor at Van Nostrand Reinhold), but an addiction to drugs caused his life to come apart, landing him in Rikers Island jail after he sold cocaine to an undercover drug squad agent. He lived in Lindenhurst, Long Island, where he fished for fluke on charter boats out of Montauk. Peter died in 2023.