Philip R. Craig was an American writer known for his Martha's Vineyard mysteries. He was born in Santa Monica and raised on a cattle ranch near Durango, Colorado. In 1951 he attended Boston University intending to become a minister, and got a degree in 1957. While at BU, he studied poetry with Robert Lowell, who quickly persuaded him that he had no future in that field, and turned to studying prose with Gerald Warner Brace, who encouraged him to write fiction. He taught English and Journalism at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts from 1962 to 1965, and at Wheelock College in Boston until 1999, at which point he retired to become a full-time writer. He was invited to join the Olympic fencing squad, but had to decline due to a knee injury. He died May 8, 2007 after a brief fight with cancer. He is survived by his wife Shirley, two children (Kimberlie and James) and five grandchildren.