Herbert Hunter Stinson was the son of Charles H. Stinson and Lillian Catherine Hunter Stinson. He was a brother to Grace and Jack. He was the husband of Evelyn Nichols Eldridge Stinson and the father of Joanne and Charles Stinson and also William Russ Eldridge Stinson ( a son from his wife's first marriage). His wife had been an actress and played the character "Rosemary" in her sister's (Anne Nichols)play "Abie's Irish Rose" on Broadway. Mr. Stinson was a journalist and police reporter. He wrote several stories for the famous "Black Mask" magazine as well as "Dime Detective" magazine and others. A letter He had written to Mr. August Lenniger of the Lenninger Literary Agency and dated May 19, 1966 describes his career: "A little background on the writing I've done might be of interest. I freelanced for about ten years from the middle Thirties on, one of my principle markets being Black Mask when it was run by that wonderful guy, Joe Shaw. Among those who I drank and wept in those days were Todd Ballard; Dwight Babcock; Cleve Adams; Bob Bellum; Ray Chandler, et al. In the mid-Forties I got into radio scripting the "Abie's Irish Rose" show for more than a year. I'm enclosing a few memories of those days. About that time a serious illness hit me, cutting my production way down and two years later when I had it licked I was broke, loaded with debt and had a couple of kids entering high school. So I played it smart and went back to my original trade of newspapering and a steady check with the LA Times organization. I stayed with that until retirement age caught up with me not too long ago. Then, with time on my hands and a typewriter standing on my desk tempting me, I came back to writing.
According to his daughter, Mr. Stinson always saw the beauty in everything despite how bleak thing may have appeared. She also remembered that he loved his wife very much. He did write a book called "Fingerprints" that was published in 1925. He dedicated his novel to his mother,Lillian Catherine Stinson.