William Alexander McPherson was born in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan in the United States. He was the second born of the three sons of Harold McPherson, chemical engineer and founder of Union Carbide International, and of his wife Ruth. Bill McPherson attended the University of Michigan from 1951 to 1955, Michigan State University from 1956 to 1958, and George Washington University from 1960 to 1962. In 1959, McPherson married Elizabeth Mosher, whom he would eventually divorce in 1979. together they and had a daughter.

McPherson worked as a copy editor for the Washington Post beginning in 1958. From 1959 to 1966, he served as a staff writer and editor at that newspaper. McPherson also served as the senior editor at William Morrow & Co. during the late 1960s. McPherson returned to the Washington Post in 1969 where he served as the daily book editor. McPherson has also edited Book World as has served as a columnist, university professor, and lecturer.

McPherson wrote his first novel, Testing the Current, in 1984. The book followed the story of a young boy caught in a series of moving childhood events. The novel proved challenging to write for McPherson who worked on the book for more than five years. Critics from The New York Times Book Review, Newsweek magazine, and the Detroit News hailed the novel as a solid piece of fiction in the tradition of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

McPherson is also the author of To the Sargasso Sea which was published in 1987. McPherson's second novel continued the story of his first. Tommy, the young boy seen in Testing the Current is portrayed as an aging sailor. The novel follows Tommy's personal growth and internal struggle.Bill McPheron has spent much of the first seven years after the execution of communist dicator Ceausescu (December 25, 1989) exploring and writing about Romania.

• Testing the Current (1984)
• To the Sargasso Sea (1987)

McPherson also contributed to periodicals such as American Spectator, Booklist, the Chicago Tribune, Publishers Weekly, and TIME magazine among others.