Claude Francis Koch was born November 28, 1918 in Philadelphia, PA. He attended La Salle College and majored in Accounting, graduating in 1940. In 1941, he married Mary Kane and also enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1946, he was discharged after serving in the Pacific theater during WWII and returned to La Salle as Associate Professor of English. While teaching, he earned an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Florida in 1957.

Koch published numerous poems and short stories in literary magazines such as Southern Review, Antioch Review, Northwest Review, La Salle’s own Four Quarters, and more. His published novels include Island Interlude (1951), Light in Silence (1958), The Kite and the Sea (1964), and A Casual Company (1965).

Koch was recognized both for his writing and for his devotion to teaching throughout his career. In 1949, he was awarded the Dodd Mead Intercollegiate Literary Fellowship for his first novel, Island Interlude. Subsequent awards included a Sewanee Review Fellowship in Fiction, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, an O. Henry Award (1985) for short fiction, and in 1968, a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching at La Salle.

Later in his career, Koch turned his attention to playwriting. His first play, Unhurrying Chase, premiered at the Toledo Theater in 1977. He expanded his short story Mother into a play in 1987. It premiered at Hillsdale College and was also produced by the Philadelphia Drama Guild at the Annenburg Center.

Koch was named Emeritus Professor of English upon his retirement in 1986. He continued to publish until his death in 2000.

The 1986 La Salle University Explorer yearbook was dedicated to Koch on the occasion of his retirement after 40 years of teaching at La Salle. The dedication describes Koch as, “…a strong believer in the discipline inherent in the craft of writing. [A belief that he] tried to instill in his students throughout his teaching career. He [tried] to make them understand that writing takes discipline, not just chance, that it is a matter of writing and rewriting, and rewriting again.”

Koch's belief in this discipline, and his dedication to the craft of writing, is made evident through the multiple drafts of his works that appear throughout this collection. Many folders include numerous rewrites of poems, plays, short stories, and novels which include his handwritten edits.