John D. Keefauver's work, quirky, humorous, ribald, and/or macabre, in varying measures, was a mainstay of such magazines as Omni and Playboy and Alfred Hitchcock Present's. Research Into Marginal Living collects his best short fiction.

"He wrote about bears who watched TV, as well as unidentified flying objects that doubled as swimming pools. The best thing about John is he could make the most ridiculous ideas seem logical, at least for the duration of the story. He had things to say, and I could tell you what I think they were saying, but instead of my stuffy explanations of what he meant that in the end might be dead wrong, it 's best for you to read the stories and decide for yourself. The thing is, you'll leave happily mystified, like discovering aliens had been living in your basement all along..." - from Joe R. Lansdale's introduction.