An essay is presented on the life and works of American judge/writer John D. Voelker. It offers a biography of Voelker, who was born to Roman Catholic parents in 1903 in Ishpeming, Michigan, and tells how he wrote a story in the sixth grade, which won him a prize of green apples from his teacher. The author relates how the works of Voelker, also known by the pen name of Robert Traver, have the characteristics of a localist and are suspicious of the government.