Fran Dorf Biography

Fran Dorf was born in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1953. As a teenager, she read voraciously, wrote poetry and stories, and began working on a novel at the age of sixteen. She graduated from high school in 1971. She attended Boston University's School of Public Communication, which she credits with instilling in her the basics of good, crisp writing, and from which she graduated cum laude in 1975.

After giving birth to her daughter, she went back to graduate school to study psychology. During this time, she began to write fiction for the first time as an adult. It quickly captivated her and overtook her intent to pursue a career as a psychologist. In 1985, she received a master's degree in psychology from New York University, and in 1990, published her first novel, A Reasonable Madness, a story about a psychiatrist and his patient. She followed this with Flight, in 1992. Both novels were Literary Guild book club selections, and received critical acclaim, in America, Germany, and internationally. A Reasonable Madness has been translated into nine foreign languages. While both of these novels explore human passions and combine elements of the thriller or mystery with magical or supernatural touches, they are primarily thrillers. Saving Elijah, being published in June, 2000, represents a departure. The tragic death of her son in 1994 has had a profound effect on her life, which she hopes has had a transforming and deepening effect on her work. Part family drama and part ghost story, Saving Elijah represents the culmination of that transformation to date.

Fran Dorf lives near New York City with her husband.

Fran Dorf's website

This bio was last updated on 10/11/2017. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.