James Allen Turner was born on March 19, 1945, in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Collinsville High School in 1963. He received a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and began graduate school but became the editor at Arkham House in 1973 before he received his degree. As well as overseeing editorial operations at Arkham House generally, Turner himself edited an anthology of Lovecraftian horror for them - Cthulhu 2000: A Lovecraftian Anthology (1995; reprinted by Del Rey Books).
