Occupation Novelist Period 1975–2006 Children Anne Harris Alma mater Baylor University Partner Pace Barnes | Education English language Role Writer Nationality American Name Thomas Harris | |
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Born April 11, 1940 (age 83)
Jackson, Tennessee, U.S. ( 1940-04-11 ) Genre Crime, horror, suspense Movies The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon, Hannibal Rising, Manhunter, Black Sunday, Sangharsh Parents William Harris, Polly Harris Books The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Hannibal Rising, Black Sunday, Clearance and Fair and Just Similar People Bryan Fuller, Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Demme, Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen | ||
Thomas harris
Thomas Harris (born April 11, 1940) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. All of his works have been made into films, the most notable being the multi-Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs, which became only the third film in Academy Award history to sweep the Oscars in major categories.
Contents
- Thomas harris
- Workshop hannibal thomas harris stripped cover lit writer s workshop
- Biography
- Personal life
- Later life
- Approach to writing and critical reception
- References
Workshop hannibal thomas harris stripped cover lit writer s workshop
Biography
Harris was born in Jackson, Tennessee, but moved as a child with his family to Rich, Mississippi. He was introverted and bookish in grade school and then blossomed in high school. He attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he majored in English and graduated in 1964. While in college, he worked as a reporter for the local newspaper, the Waco Tribune-Herald, covering the police beat. In 1968, he moved to New York City to work for Associated Press until 1974 when he began work on Black Sunday.
Personal life
Little is known about Harris's personal life as he avoids publicity and has not given an interview since 1976. At Baylor University he met and married a fellow student named Harriet. They had one daughter, Anne, before they divorced in the 1960s. Harris remained close to his mother Polly throughout his life and called her every night no matter where he was. He often discussed particular scenes from his novels with her. Polly died on December 31, 2011.
Later life
He currently lives in South Florida and has a summer home in Sag Harbor, New York. His long-term domestic partner is Pace Barnes, a woman who, according to USA Today, "used to work in publishing and is as outgoing as he is quiet." Harris' friend and literary agent Morton Janklow said of him: "He's one of the good guys. He is big, bearded and wonderfully jovial. If you met him, you would think he was a choirmaster. He loves cooking—he's done the Le Cordon Bleu exams—and it's great fun to sit with him in the kitchen while he prepares a meal and see that he's as happy as a clam. He has these old-fashioned manners, a courtliness you associate with the South."
Approach to writing and critical reception
Fellow novelist Stephen King has remarked that if writing is sometimes tedious for other authors, to Harris it is like "writhing on the floor in agonies of frustration", because, for Harris, "the very act of writing is a kind of torment". Novelist John Dunning said of Harris, "All he is is a talent of the first rank."