Name Ed Robison | ||
Education Los Angeles City College
El Camino College
UCLA | ||
Edward Volney Robison is an American writer of short stories, novels, and screenplays. His work most often focuses an unvarnished light on the events, encounters, and malaise of blue collar America, particularly in the logging region of the Pacific Northwest.
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Born in Bellingham, Washington to Mildred and Volney Robison, Ed Robison is the middle of three siblings. The family eventually moved to Los Angeles where Robison spent the majority of his childhood. After graduating from high school, he held several jobs, including working for the Los Angeles County Superior Court. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. A year later Robison went to Korea where he served as a radio intercept operator. Upon discharge in 1954, Robison returned to Southern California and began his career as a computer programmer for aerospace manufacturer Rockwell International. At the same time, he attended UCLA where he studied writing under Leonardo Bercovici, the noted screenwriter and educator.
Robison retired from Rockwell and, after a brief stint with Hughes Aircraft, relocated to an old ranch house in Port Angeles, Washington.
North Light Gallery
Together with his wife, Marlene, Robison opened North Light Gallery, which showcased Northwest artists and artisans. It was during his time as owner of North Light Gallery that Robison cultivated the bulk of the material for his fiction from the myriad of community members who frequented his business. This marked the most productive period so far in Robison’s literary output; writing enough short stories to fill several volumes. During this period, Robison hosted a classical music broadcast for 13 years at KONP Port Angeles and was a member of the Port Angeles Symphony board. The Robisons eventually sold the gallery and entered full retirement.