Milton Ready is a Professor Emeritus of History living in quiet contentment in the mountains of Western North Carolina near Asheville. He was born and bred in the area around Willis, Texas, where he attended public schools. Upon graduation he attended Rice University and the University of Houston, followed by a tour of duty in the United States Army.

Ready earned a Ph. D. from the University of Georgia though most of his teaching career was at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where he received the 1985 Distinguished Teaching Award. He is also a recipient of the Georgia Historical Society's E. Merton Coulter Award for the writing of Georgia history. His most recent books, Remembering Asheville and The Tar Heel State: A History of North Carolina were both published in 2005.

A man of varied interests, Ready plays tennis, gardens, hikes the Appalachian Trail, and is a 4th degree black belt in traditional Korean Tae Kwon Do. He also admits to doing a terrific Texas two-step and a little square dancing.