Julian Street was born April 12, 1879, in Chicago. He was a reporter, short story writer, novelist, travel writer, humorist, and food writer. His nonfiction books include Abroad at Home (Garden City Publishing Co., 1914), The Most Interesting American: A Close Range Study of Theodore Roosevelt (The Century Co., 1915), and Mysterious Japan (Doubleday, Page, & Co., 1921).

He cowrote, with Booth Tarkington, The Country Cousin, a play that opened at New York's Gaiety Theatre in the fall of 1917. He published a novel, Rita Coventry (Doubleday) in 1922 and was also the recipient of two O. Henry Awards for his short stories. Known as an expert on wine and French cuisine later in his career, he published, soon after the end of prohibition, a pamphlet titled Civilized Drinking. Street died February 19, 1947, in Lakeville, Connecticut.