William Hazlett Upson was born in Glen Ridge, NJ on September 26, 1891. His father was a Wall Street lawyer and his mother was a doctor of medicine. Upson became a farmer then enlisted in the field artillery in World War I. After the war he worked for several years as a service mechanic and troubleshooter for the Caterpillar Tractor Company. He learned the art of salesmanship which would inspire his later writing. In 1923, he began writing short stories and in 1927 created character Alexander Botts, who has appeared in over a hundred Saturday Evening Post stories.

Upson married Marjory Alexander Wright and made a home in Middlebury, Vt. He had a son, John Wright Upson and a daughter, Polly (Mrs. Claude A. Brown).