Nathanson was born in 1928 in The Bronx. His mother suffered from depression and went into an institution when he was two years old. He was placed in a Jewish orphanage in Manhattan and lived there until he was seven, when he was sent to the Hebrew National Orphan Home in Yonkers. He remained there until he graduated high school.
Nathanson majored in anthropology at New York University. Nathanson held a variety of writing and editing jobs. He was a copy editor for Fairchild Publications in New York, a reporter for the Arlington Sun in Virginia, a stringer for The Washington Post and a freelance magazine writer.
By 1959, he was living in Los Angeles, where he worked as associate editor for Daring Detective magazine and an editing job for a chain of pulp magazines.

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