Born in Los Angeles in 1942, Edward Moncrief grew up in the rural town of Redlands, California. On numerous occasions during his youth, his family traveled to LA to visit aunts and uncles, cousins, and other maternal “shirt-sleeve” relatives. It was often an overnight-weekend affair and always graced with thirty to forty attendees—mostly Angelinos. At the time, Moncrief had little understanding that this tradition of family engagement and presence in the LA basin was the legacy of four generations that began with Lewis and Persis Ainsworth; the central actors in “The Courageous Consumptive.” Moncrief spent ten years studying to be a Franciscan priest, receiving a solid grounding in the Liberal Arts. During those years, he developed a love for literature and the English language. At the age of twenty-three, he decided to leave his studies for the priesthood. He married Judi Carl in 1967. The following year, he entered graduate school where he earned a master’s degree in social work; after which, he moved first to the San Joaquin and then to the Salinas Valley. He vii spent his forty-one-year career directing non-profit housing organizations, developing new housing for farmworker families and other economically disadvantaged people. In 1980, he founded Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association. “CHISPA” continues to develop housing throughout California’s Central Coast area. After his retirement in 2011, Moncrief began a new career as an author and free-lance writer. Over the years, he has been a guest columnist and has written editorials and articles for the “Salinas Californian”, the “Monterey County Herald”, “Western City Magazine” among other newspapers and journals. He published his first novel in 2017; “Raising the Blackbirds” is based on his experiences during his years developing housing with farmworker families.