William Styron was “so wildly drunk, it was embarrassing,” says Scott Turow, the man who created the modern legal thriller. Way back in the 1980s Turow shot to fame (and fortune) after publication of his first legal thriller Presumed Innocent (which became a major motion picture starring Harrison Ford).
Turow’s description of acclaimed novelist Styron followed a New York City luncheon where Scott was awarded a Book of the Month writing fellowship. Styron was on stage handing out the awards that day, or at least attempting to. Turow, at the time, had just graduated from college. He went on to teach writing at Stanford and later attend Harvard Law. At the time though, young Turow found the whole scene intimidating. “New York scared the shit out of me in those days.”
Turow later authored a book about his freshman year at Harvard Law School called One L, Harvard’s computer acronym for first-year law students. He says he doesn’t know what Putnam Editor Ned Chase saw in his book, but he’s glad he chose it. Turow’s been receiving royalty checks ever since.
For more than three decades One L has become must reading for law students and those considering law school. Chase, a top book editor in his day, was father of comedian Chevy Chase. Before Turow entered Harvard, his agent told Chase about Turow’s idea for the book. Chase wrote up a contract before Turow even entered Harvard. It was Turow’s first published book.
When you become as big as Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series, strange stuff happens, he says. In his sixth novel, Echo Burning, he included an attempted assassination. He traveled to Denmark on a book tour just as an assassination attempt on a public official came to light in that country. Child, expecting to be interviewed about his latest novel, was instead asked about the assassination attempt as if he were an expert.
He was candid about it saying he was no expert at all. “I just make things up.”
On another occasion, a member of the Australian Federal Parliament cited Child’s Jack Reacher character during a floor debate in the legislature. You know you’ve arrived when your novel’s protagonist is used in political discourse halfway around the world.
Child’s Jack Reacher series, which has spawned more than 25 books, is the largest selling thriller series in the genre. Child’s sold more than 100 million books. But not any more. He retired from the franchise and turned the reins over to his younger brother Andrew Grant, also a novelist. For the series, Grant is writing under the pen name Andrew Child. Lee’s name remains on the covers as well. That’s called branding.
Lee Child says retirement includes buying a new couch to lounge on and do what he loves most. Read books. He’s also busy as executive producer of Amazon’s Jack Reacher series, which debuted in 2021. Have you binged yet?
NEXT WEEK: The college kid whose novels were already published in 10 languages, yet he couldn’t graduate because he lacked three credits in—well—you guessed it.
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Rick Pullen is the author of the best selling thriller Naked Ambition, its sequel Naked Truth, and a stand-alone thriller The Apprentice.
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