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William Fifield was a noted author of both fiction and nonfiction. He won an O.Henry short-story prize in 1942, and published In Search of Genius, a collection of interviews with people he considered geniuses, including Picasso, Cocteau, Miro, Dali and Robert Graves, He also published The Devil's Marchioness, a novel based on the life of a notorious seventeenth-century poisoner, the Marquise de Brinvilliers; The Sign of Taurus, a novel set in Mexico about a Jewish refugee; Modigliani, a biography with interviews with members of the artist's family. He also recorded conversations with such luminaries as Marcel Marceau and famed French artist Jean Cocteau, and wrote extensively for publication in magazines such as Harpers. He also wrote about 130 radio and television plays.

Born in Chicago in 1916, Mr. Fifield was raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Seattle, Washington. He was a magna cum laude graduate of Whitman College in 1937, serving as student body president and he won honors in extemporaneous speaking. While working in Hollywood as a scriptwriter, he began publishing short stories in national magazines. In 1950, he moved to Europe to become a full-time writer, and lived there for nearly forty years. He died in 1987 at the age of 71.

His father, the Rev. Dr. L. (Lawrence) Wendell Fifield was a pastor in the Congregational Church from 1927 to 1955, leading churches in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Seattle, Washington; and Brooklyn, New York. Known for his oratorical skills, his sermons were broadcast on radio and he attracted large crowds to public events. His first wife, Juanita, was the mother of his two sons, William and Robert. She died in 1935, and he married his second wife, June, in 1936.

Born in Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1891, Fifield graduated from Oberlin College in 1913 and from Chicago Theological Seminary in 1917. He was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree from Yankton College and a Doctor of Letters from Whitman College. He left the pastorate in 1955 at the age of 64 and spent his retirement years in Southern California. He died in 1964.

Other notable family members were William Fifield's first wife, actress Mercedes McCambridge, who won an Oscar in 1950 for best supporting actress for All the King's Men, and was nominated for another Academy Award for Giant in 1956. His second wife was Donna (Hamilton) Shor, a British-born actress and journalist, and his third wife, model Aaltje Guyt, now Aaltje Verhille, whom he met in Ibiza around 1967. William's daughter, Donnali Fifield, is also a published author and the literary executor of her father's work.