Richard Preston Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Richard Preston Biography

Richard Preston is the author of seven books, including The Hot Zone, The Cobra Event, The Demon in the Freezer and Wild Trees; and is a regular contributor to The New Yorker. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and he's won numerous awards, including the American Institute of Physics Award and the National Magazine Award. He lives outside New York City with his wife and children. He teaches non-fiction writing program at University of Iowa

He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 5, 1954, and grew up in Wellesley, a suburb of Boston. One of three children (his brother is author Douglas Preston) he was a shy child and small for his age, and had difficulty learning to read. In fourth grade he discovered books and began reading everything he could get his hands on; but, even today, he says that he struggles putting simple letters together to make words.

He attended Wellesley High School, where he had mediocre grades and a bad disciplinary record, and was rejected by every college he applied to. One of the colleges that rejected him was Pomona College in southern California. He called the dean of admissions and asked if the college ever changed their mind, to which the answer was no. Preston started to call the dean once a week. Even though he called collect every time, the dean kept accepting his calls and eventually he was put on the waiting list and was admitted to college mid-year. He graduated summa cum laude.

From Pomona he went to Princeton University where he met his wife, Michelle, and got a Ph.D in English, writing his dissertation on nineteenth-century American narrative nonfiction writing.

His first book, First Light (a nonfiction book about astronomy) was published in 1987. He then wrote American Steel. In 1992 he became interested in the Ebola virus which led to an article in the New Yorker and the book, The Hot Zone. The Cobra Event (novel) followed, which describes a fictional bioterror event in New York City. In 2002 he published The Demon in The Freezer, a nonfiction book about bioterrorism and the smallpox virus.

In 2003 he published a children's book, The Boat of Dreams: A Christmas Story, about two children who meet a very odd Santa Claus in a flying lobster boat. Then he got hooked on climbing trees, resulting in Wild Trees (2007).

Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science was published in 2008.

Richard Preston's website

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