EDWARD RYDER

EDWARD RYDER WAS BORN in New York City. After graduation from DeWitt Clinton High School, he enrolled at Cornell University, where he received a B.S. degree in botanical sciences. After graduating, he entered the graduate program at the University of California in Davis where he earned a Ph.D. in genetics and plant breeding.

After serving two years with the U.S. Army, he accepted a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Salinas, California, which lasted 44 years. He produced nearly 150 publications, including two books, numerous book chapters, research papers, and other publications. He bred and released for public use several varieties of crisphead lettuce, including the one he named Salinas, which became the most widely grown variety in the world. Known variously as Dr. Lettuce or The Lettuce King, Ed Ryder was acknowledged to be the world's foremost expert in the genetics and breeding of lettuce.

He retired in 2003 at the age of 73, and although kept busy with consulting and continuing to work for more than a year while his replacement was being sought, he began a new career as a writer of fiction. The Departments is his first venture into the world of make-believe, but not, he says, his last. He is currently working on a sequel to The Departments as well as another very different tale.