James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke was born in Houston in 1936, and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute for two years and graduated with honors from the University of Missouri. He attended the University of Madrid briefly in the first year that Franco allowed foreigners back into Spain since the Spanish Civil War, and later received a Master’s degree in English from the University of Missouri. There he met Pearl Pai, who was in two wars and flew two years with the Flying Tiger Airline (later renamed Air America). In graduate school, she worked as a waitress and he at three jobs, and they lived in a basement that had a curtain for a door. Over the years Burke taught in four universities, one community college, and the Job Corps. He was also a case worker in California with former felons, the indigent, migrant farm workers, and the criminally insane. He was a pipeliner in Texas, a landman for Sinclair Oil Company in Louisiana, a surveyor in Colorado, a long-distance truck driver, and a newspaper reporter.
He finished his first novel, Half of Paradise, when he was twenty-three, but could not find a publisher for it. In Los Angeles he met George Poole, who introduced him to an agent in New York. Upon publication, the novel was given a six-column review in The New York Times. The reviewer, Wirt Williams, author of Ada Dallas, compared Burke’s novel to the work of Faulkner and Sartre.
Burke published two more novels, then submitted the manuscript title The Lost Get-Back Boogie. It stayed under submission for over nine years and was rejected more than 111 times. The consequence was that Burke stayed out of hardback print for thirteen years. During this period he met his agent, Philip Spitzer, who was driving a cab in Hell’s Kitchen at night and running a one-man agency during the day. When The Lost Get-Back Boogie was finally published by Louisiana State University Press, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Burke has been a Breadloaf Fellow and Guggenheim Fellow, and has been awarded two Edgar Awards for best novel, as well as the Grand Master Master Award, by the Mystery Writers of America. . The Dave Robicheaux series has been translated into almost every language in the world.
Burke and his wife, Pearl, have four children and four grandchildren, and live on a ranch in western Montana.
(Condensed from the author's web-site)
He finished his first novel, Half of Paradise, when he was twenty-three, but could not find a publisher for it. In Los Angeles he met George Poole, who introduced him to an agent in New York. Upon publication, the novel was given a six-column review in The New York Times. The reviewer, Wirt Williams, author of Ada Dallas, compared Burke’s novel to the work of Faulkner and Sartre.
Burke published two more novels, then submitted the manuscript title The Lost Get-Back Boogie. It stayed under submission for over nine years and was rejected more than 111 times. The consequence was that Burke stayed out of hardback print for thirteen years. During this period he met his agent, Philip Spitzer, who was driving a cab in Hell’s Kitchen at night and running a one-man agency during the day. When The Lost Get-Back Boogie was finally published by Louisiana State University Press, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Burke has been a Breadloaf Fellow and Guggenheim Fellow, and has been awarded two Edgar Awards for best novel, as well as the Grand Master Master Award, by the Mystery Writers of America. . The Dave Robicheaux series has been translated into almost every language in the world.
Burke and his wife, Pearl, have four children and four grandchildren, and live on a ranch in western Montana.
(Condensed from the author's web-site)
Dave Robicheaux Series
1. The Neon Rain (1987) 2. Heaven's Prisoners (1988) 3. Black Cherry Blues (1989) 4. A Morning for Flamingos (1990) 5. A Stained White Radiance (1992) 6. In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead (1993) 7. Dixie City Jam (1994) 8. Burning Angel (1995) 9. Cadillac Jukebox (1996) 10. Sunset Limited (1996) 11. Purple Cane Road (2000) 12. Jolie Bon's Bounce (2002) 13. Last Car to Elysian Fields (2003) 14. Crusader's Cross (2005) 15. Pegasus Descending (2006) 16. The Tin Roof Blowdown (2007) 17. Swan Peak (2010) 18. The Glass Rainbow (2010) 19. Creole Belle (2012) 20. Light of the World (2013) 21. Robicheaux (2018) 22. The New Iberia Blues (2019) 23. A Private Cathedral (2020) |
Novels
Half of Paradise To The Bright and Shing Sun Two for Texas The Lost Get Back Boogie White Doves at Morning Flags on the Bayou Holland Family Series 1. Wayfaring Stranger 2. The Jealous Kind 3. Another Kind of Eden 4. Every Cloak Rolled in Blood |