Nolan was born in
Webster Groves,
Missouri, and lived in southeastern Missouri as well as in the St. Louis suburbs. Nolan's father, William Francis Nolan, the son of an Irish father and a German mother, taught history at St. Louis Community College after serving his country as a
Marine. Keith's mother, a Swedish immigrant from Falköping, worked as a dental hygienist. As a child, Nolan was deeply affected by reports of war that he would see on the nightly news; as he grew into a young man, he would later say that these images are what sparked his interest in writing about the Vietnam conflict. ==Publications==