Robert R. McCammon

Robert Rick McCammon (born July 17, 1952) is an American novelist. Considered one of the influential authors in the late 1970s–early 1990s American horror literature boom, by 1991 McCammon had three New York Times bestsellers (The Wolf's Hour, Stinger, and Swan Song) and around 5 million books in print. He also wrote the critically acclaimed novel Boy's Life (1991) which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1992. Since 2002, he's written ten books in a historical mystery series featuring an 18th-century magistrate's clerk, Matthew Corbett, as he unravels mysteries in colonial America.

Early life

McCammon was born in Birmingham, Alabama. His parents are Jack, a musician, and Barbara Bundy McCammon. After his parents' divorce, McCammon lived with his grandparents in Birmingham. He received a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Alabama in 1974. McCammon lives in Birmingham.

Career

McCammon has published multiple award-winning books, including Mine in 1990 and Boy's Life in 1991. After the release of Gone South, McCammon chose to leave his publisher. After clashing with an editor at a new publisher over the direction for his historical fiction novel Speaks the Nightbird, he retired from writing. After a long hiatus which resulted from the reorganization of the publishing industry and McCammon's personal depression and soul searching, he returned to the publishing world with Speaks the Nightbird, the first book in the Matthew Corbett series. Publishers Weekly called it a "compulsively readable yarn," and said, "McCammon's loyal fans will find his resurfacing reason to rejoice." Since 2002, seventeen new books have been published, including the ten books in the Matthew Corbett series.

In 1985, McCammon's story "Nightcrawlers" was adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone.

After years out-of-print, Baal, Bethany's Sin, The Night Boat, and They Thirst were re-released by Subterranean Press as limited edition novels. In a 2013 interview, McCammon acknowledged that some readers would like to have a complete collection of his work, and said "reading back over those books I find they’re not as poorly written as I recall them to be."

Personal life

He married Sally Sanders in 1981. They have a daughter named Skye. The couple divorced in 2011.