詹姆斯·帕特森

詹姆斯·布兰登·帕特森（英语：James Brendan Patterson，1947年3月22日—）是美国的一名畅销小说作家和慈善家，根据福布斯的调查，帕特森在2011年凭7,000万美元的收入及2012年8,400万美元，打败了JK罗琳及斯蒂芬·埃德温·金等人，成为全球收入最高的作家。帕特森学位毕业于曼哈顿学院英语系，继而再取得范德堡大学的硕士学位。毕业后进入广告公司工作，由基层做起，他的工作越做越顺，其广告意念获得了玩具反斗城及汉堡王等跨国企业的青睐，直到1996年在广告公司集团的分区主席位置中退下来。

文学

帕特森于1977年出道时，即凭处女作《托马斯·贝瑞曼号码》获得爱伦坡奖的新人奖，其后帕特森出版的作品更多次登上纽约时报畅销小说排行榜的第一名，刷新了吉尼斯世界纪录，而其作品的销量更惊人，销售总数是史蒂芬·金和丹·布朗作品的总和。帕特森的作品除获得读者的支持外，更获得其得媒体的欣赏，其中脍炙人口的《女子谋杀俱乐部》系列及《亚历克斯·克洛斯》系列分别已被改编成电视及电影，《亚历克斯·克洛斯》系列的《红唇劫》及《全面追缉令》更由第69届金球奖终身成就奖的摩根·弗里曼领衔主演。

James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author. Among his works are the Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Women's Murder Club, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, NYPD Red, Witch & Wizard, Private and Middle School series, as well as many stand-alone thrillers, non-fiction, and romance novels. Patterson's books have sold more than 425 million copies, and he was the first person to sell one million e-books. In 2016, Patterson topped Forbes's list of highest-paid authors for the third consecutive year, with an income of $95 million. His total income over a decade is estimated at $700 million. Many of his stories are written in collaboration with other authors, where Patterson provides the story and the other author largely writes the book, which has lead to Patterson being described as being as much a "brand" as an author.

In November 2015, Patterson received the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation. He has donated millions of dollars in grants and scholarship to various universities, teachers' colleges, independent bookstores, school libraries, and college students to promote literacy.

Early life

James Patterson was born on March 22, 1947, in Newburgh, New York, the son of Isabelle (née Morris), a homemaker and teacher, and Charles Patterson, an insurance broker. The family was working-class and of Irish descent. Patterson graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Manhattan University and with an M.A. in English from Vanderbilt University.

Career

Patterson was a PhD candidate at Vanderbilt when he took a job as an advertising executive at J. Walter Thompson. After Patterson retired from advertising in 1996, he devoted his time to writing and has written more than 200 novels. Patterson later said that his greatest influence was probably Evan S. Connell's 1959 debut novel Mrs. Bridge. In 1976, Patterson published his first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number. The novels featuring his character Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist formerly of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation who now works as a private psychologist and government consultant, are his most popular and the top-selling U.S. detective series of the 2010s. Patterson has written more than 200 novels since 1976. Patterson has had more than 114 New York Times bestselling novels, and holds The New York Times record for most #1 New York Times bestsellers by a single author – 67 – which is also a Guinness World Record. His novels account for one in 17, roughly 6%, of all hardcover novels sold in the United States; as of 2010, Patterson's novels had in recent years sold more copies than those of Stephen King, John Grisham, and Dan Brown combined. His books have sold approximately 305 million copies worldwide. In 2008, Patterson replaced Jacqueline Wilson as the most borrowed author in Britain's libraries. He retained this position at least until 2013. In 2018, Patterson worked with Stephen David Entertainment on the true crime television series James Patterson's Murder Is Forever.

Patterson's awards include the Edgar Award, the BCA Mystery Guild's Thriller of the Year, the International Thriller of the Year award, and the Children's Choice Book Award for Author of the Year. He is the first author to have No. 1 new titles simultaneously on The New York Times adult and children's bestsellers lists, and to have two books on NovelTrackr's top-ten list at the same time. In 2019, Patterson was awarded a National Humanities Medal. He appeared on the Fox TV show The Simpsons (in the episode "Yokel Chords") and in various episodes of Castle as himself.