Wings of Fire is the notable work most closely associated with A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, an Indian aerospace engineer, military flight engineer, politician, and teacher whose life spanned from 1931 to 2015.

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on October 15, 1931, in Rameswaram taluk. He was educated at St Joseph's College in Tiruchirappalli and at the University of Madras, and he also attended Oakland University. From those years of study he moved into a career that crossed several fields: aerospace engineering, military flight engineering, broader engineering work, political service, and teaching. He worked in English, Tamil, and Telugu across his professional life.

Kalam received the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan, and was later awarded the Bharat Ratna. His occupations ranged across technical disciplines and public roles in ways that few careers encompass — from the engineering domains in which he trained to the work of a teacher and the responsibilities of a politician, all held across the decades of his active life as an Indian citizen.

Abdul Kalam died on July 27, 2015, in Shillong. The Library of Congress Name Authority records him under the authorized form "Abdul Kalam, A. P. J. (Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen), 1931–2015," a designation that preserves in formal bibliographic record the full name behind the initials by which he was most commonly identified.