Floyd Dell was born in Barry, Illinois on June 28, 1887.

As a literary critic, Dell had a national reputation for promoting modern American literature in the 1910s. Dell was a best-selling author of novels and books of stories and essays. He was a life-long poet and the author of a hit Broadway play, Little Accident (1928). His influence is alive in the work of many major American writers from the first half of the 20th century.

After dropping out of high school in Davenport, Iowa, Dell found work as a reporter on local newspapers and with the socialist magazine 'Tri-City Worker.' While in Davenport he also began publishing poetry in national magazines.

In 1908 Dell moved on to Chicago where he became editor of the Friday Literary Review and a leader of the Chicago Renaissance. In his position at FLR, Dell promoted the work of Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Carl Sandburg and other Chicago writers. Relocating to New York in 1913, Dell became managing editor of Max Eastman's radical magazine The Masses, and a leader of the pre-war bohemian community in Greenwich Village.

Dell joined fellow Davenporters Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook as a member of the Provincetown Players and his play King Arthur's Socks was the first performed by that historic theater group. Following the war, Dell turned to fiction and his first novel, the bildungsroman Moon-Calf, became a best seller. This was followed by several other novels withlimited success.

Dell continued to publish both fiction and non-fiction until the end of his long life. He joined the WPA and U. S. Information Service in 1935 from which he retired following World War II.

He died in Maryland near Washington DC on July 23, 1969.