The author, James Patterson

Award-winning author James Patterson was born on March 22, 1947. James earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Manhattan College, then graduated summa cum laude with his Master's degree in English from Vanderbilt University. After graduation, Patterson's way with words initially found an outlet in the world of marketing. He worked as an advertising executive for J. W. Thompson during the early 90s, when he came up with the slogan "Toys R Us Kid." (McGrath, pp 125)

James Patterson was raised in Newburgh, New York. His parents were Charles Patterson and Isabelle Patterson. Charles was an insurance broker while Isabelle worked as a teacher and homemaker. His personal life has been mostly private. Patterson does not like to tell about his family life to anyone, but does tell seldom(Joshi, pp 119-141). Right now, Patterson lives in Palm Beach, Florida with his wife, Sue and son, Jack who is ten. His favorite hobby to do, besides write, is to golf with his friends.

James Patterson went on to major in English at Manhattan College in 1969. He only stayed one year. James Patterson had a unique story to where and when he decided to be an author. His job over the summer of 1969 was working as a medical aid at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. While working there, he became friends with a poet named Robert Lowell. Lowell talked to Patterson about writing and seeing if he may want to. In that summer, Patterson began to try and write, but turned out wanting to try to teach. He went to Vanderbilt University in 1970 for a teaching major. He didn't enjoy it. He left that year and started to write again (www.hachettebookgroup.com). Instead of a teaching job he got a job at J. Walter Thompson advertising agency as a junior copywriter. In his off time Patterson wrote many books. Through the years he worked his way up and in 1990 became the CEO. In 1995, Patterson retired his job and devoted his life to writing (Joshi, 119-141).

Although he had been penning published novels since the mid-70s, it wasn't until the success of his novel Along Came a Spider that Patterson decided to leave the world of advertising for his literary pursuits and take up writing fulltime. Hollywood soon took notice of the potential behind Patterson's page-turners. Along Came a Spider was adapted to film in 2001, starring Morgan Freeman as detective Alex Cross, a black forensic psychologist with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and formerly of the Washington, D.C. Police Department. The next novel in the Alex Cross series, Kiss the Girls was also adapted to film, and created out of sequence in 1997.

In addition to thrilling his fans, Patterson's success in both the literary and cinematic world has attracted some criticism from his contemporaries. Horror heavyweight Stephen King has referred to Patterson's books as "dopey thrillers." In response, Patterson has retorted that he wants to be the "thrillingest thriller writer of all time." Despite criticism, Patterson's popularity with ...