Reese was born in Sweetwater, Nebraska, and died in Santa Maria, California. He went to school in Nebraska and Kansas. "I was the eldest of six children of a very poor couple. My father was a horse breaker and former cavalryman; my mother was the daughter of a frontier blacksmith and woodworker. I may be the last professional Writer who talked to those survivors of the 1880s and 1890s and who grew up in the same environment. It was a specialized education for one job alone, the one I have." He married Margaret Smith in 1938, was divorced, and married Norma Spivack in 1962. Altogether he had seven children, one of whom was adopted. In addition to writing, John H. Reese worked for the U.S. Department of Internal Revenue and as a reporter for the Los Angeles Examiner in California and as a free-lance for newspapers in Mexico. His first Western novel was Signal Guns at Sunup written under the pseudonym of John Jo Carpenter. He is survived by his great granddaughter Kim who is also a published author.

Reese finished high school, but considered himself "self-taught". He began writing primarily western stories for the pulps in the 1930s. His westerns appeared in such magazines as 10 Story Western, Ace High, Argosy, Big Book Western, Dime Western Magazine, and Ranch Romances. His mysteries appeared in such magazines as Black Mask, Detective Tales, Speed Detective, Super Detective, Ellery Queen's and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. He also wrote for the pulp magazine Man from U.N.C.L.E. in the 1960s. He graduated to writing for the slicks and glossies and sold stories in the high-end market to The Saturday Evening Post, Atlantic Monthly, Collier's, and Playboy. He was a leading freelance contributor to The Saturday Evening Post for 18 years (1944–1962). Reese was "a nut about the English language", "delighted in good prose and was a fine Stylist himself." Sheehan's Mill was described as "a first novel with unexpected approach and fresh personal style."

Big Mutt, Reese's first children's book, was about a sheep dog in the badlands of North Dakota. It won the 1952 New York Herald Tribune award for best children's book. He continued to write children's books through the 1960s, but thereafter concentrated on his Westerns. The Jesus on Horseback trilogy is considered his best work. Among his many pseudonyms are: Eddie Abbott, John Jo Carpenter, Camford Cheavly, Camford Sheaveley, Camford Sheavely, and Cody Kennedy, Jr. The John H. Reese manuscript collection is located at the American Heritage Center (formerly the Western History Research Center) at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Several of his Western stories were made into films, including Good Day for a Hanging (1959) from the story Frontier Frenzy, and The Young Land (1959) based upon a short story by Reese. Charley Varrick (1973) was based on his crime novel The Looters, His stories were the basis for many radio and television broadcasts, including NBC's Theatre Newsstand Radio Broadcast, ABC's Five Star Matinee Radio Broadcast, and The DuPont Show of the Week.