Dean Koontz: A Writer's Biography - Hardcover

Ramsland, Katherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006105271X ISBN 13: 9780061052712

Publisher: Harper Prism, 1997

Synopsis

A detailed glimpse into the life of one of the most prominent suspense writers ranges from his troubling childhood with an abusive, alcoholic father to his days as a teacher trying to get published to his marriage and finally his overwhelming success, and details the reasoning behind his novels and character development.

About this title

About the Author:

Katherine Ramsland has written a dozen books and numerous articles and short stories. In the past year she has been editing Vampyre Magazine. After publishing two books in psychology, Engaging the Immediate and The Art of Learning, she wrote Prism of the Night: A Biography of Anne Rice. At the same time she had a cover story in Psychology Today on our culture's fascination with vampires. She followed the biography with several guide books to Anne Rice's fictional worlds including The Vampire Companion: The Official Guide to Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and The Anne Rice Reader. Her last book before Piercing the Darkness was a biography of Dean Koontz called Dean Koontz: A Writer's Biography. She has also written for The New York Times Book Review, The Writer, The Horror Show, The Newark Star Ledger, The Trenton Times, and Publishers Weekly. Ramsland has a master's degree in clinical psychology and a Ph.D. in philosophy. She has been a professor at Rutgers University, a therapist, and a psycho-educator specializing in the psyche's shadow side, and is currently at work on another master's degree--this one in forensic psychology. She lives in Princeton, NJ.

From Library Journal:

Fans of writer Dean Koontz will welcome this full-length biography. Koontz, not known for giving extensive interviews, cooperated in the writing of the book, although it is not an authorized biography. Ramsland, who has previously written studies of Anne Rice (Prisms of the Night, Plume, 1994), presents Koontz's troubled childhood with an alcoholic father and ailing mother, follows him through his years as a teacher, and relates his struggling beginnings, and eventual success, as a writer. In addition to the facts of his life, Ramsland analyzes his fiction extensively, drawing parallels between his life and his fiction. Her central idea is that Koontz's traumas as a child are exorcised, to some extent, in his novels. Some readers may find the extensive summarizing tiresome and would prefer to know more of what makes Koontz tick. Yet libraries should expect heavy demand from diehard Koontz fans.?Ronald Ray Ratliff, Chapman H.S. Lib., Kan.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Prism
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 006105271X
• ISBN 13: 9780061052712
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 508