The story of how Benedict and Nancy Freedman came to write the American classic MRS. MIKE, still in print in the original edition after sixty-four years, an international bestseller, major motion picture starring Dick Powell and Evelyn Keyes, and excerpted in high school classes all over the country.
Benedict and Nancy Freedman met in 1939, fell in love and were married in 1941. Over a lifetime of writing, they produced twenty-one books, three films, three children, and a flock of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Benedict Freedman, the son and grandson of writers, was born in New York City in 1919. While in high school he studied accelerated courses for gifted boys and graduated with a medal for mathematics. At fourteen he entered Columbia University as a premed student, but had to drop out at sixteen because of his father's sudden death. For a time Benedict continued private study of higher mathematics. Freedman’s chief interest was in games and recreational mathematics, but he also assisted in writing a textbook and worked on actuarial problems as clerk to a consulting actuary.