 Judson Cofield Mitcham was born in 1948 in Monroe, Georgia to Wilson Mitcham, who worked at the local mill, and Myrtle, who worked for the New Deal Seed Loan Program.When he was 16, Judson Mitcham was involved in a car accident while driving a Chevrolet Corvair, which caused the death of one of his friends.Thinking about this incident was among the things that fueled Mitcham to write.