Ruth Nuzum was a book collector from Boulder, Colorado. She began corresponding with Malcolm Cowley in 1979, and through the mail became friends with him and his wife Muriel. As a Cowley completist she asked Cowley many questions over the years about more rare books and works of his, and as she acquired more materials by and about Cowley she would send him copies of items he might not have. Cowley responded graciously and in kind, offering to inscribe books she sent along, and to offer advice on who to contact to purchase works of his.

Malcolm Cowley was born Aug. 24, 1898, in Belsano, Pennsylvania. After living and attending school in and around Pittsburgh, he entered Harvard University at the age of 17. Sophomore year at Harvard, he dropped out briefly to join the American Field Service and served at the French front as a camion driver during World War I. In 1918 he returned to Harvard and graduated, living in the 1920's in both Paris and Greenwich Village, New York. After freelancing for a number of years he became the associate editor of The New Republic in 1929. Settling in Sherman, Connecticut with his second wife Muriel, Cowley continued to write for the rest of his life, succumbing to a heart attack at the age of 90 on Mar. 27, 1989.