Alan Brown was born in Alton, Illinois. After attending Millikin Univeristy, Southern Illinois University and the University of Illinois, he taught high school in Springfield, Illinois. In 1986, he began teaching English at the University of West Alabama. After living in Mississippi for a year, Brown became interested in the folklore of the South and began collecting it on his own. "People talk in the Midwest," Brown said, "but not like they do in the South. I guess this is why southerners are great storytellers." When he is not teaching freshman composition or American literature, Dr. Brown writes books on his favorite topic: ghost stories. Haunted Vicksburg is his eleventh collection of southern ghost tales. As much as he loves old stories that send shivers up the spine, Brown's first love is his wife, Marilyn, and his two daughters, Andrea and Vanessa.