I Write Therefore I Am: A Collection of Writings by Douglas Haig Simpson

Douglas Haig Simpson was born in 1919 and grew up in California where both parents were officers in the Salvation Army and all five of their children were involved in the work. During World War II Douglas taught instrument flying for the Army Air Force. After the War he majored in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Following that he obtained a contractor's license and did a variety of jobs with houses. He built a few of his own design, consulted about the problems with old houses, bought and restored houses, rented them out or sold them. At 40 he married Elaine Wesley and they had two children. In 1975 the family moved to rural Grass Valley where they lived for nearly 25 years. For the last two years of his life he and his wife lived at the Veterans Home of California in Yountville. Douglas died there in 2001 aged 82. In his seventies he had become increasingly interested in writing and by 80 being a writer had become his main occupation and identity.