One of his novels was produced by Gerber Productions Company and M.G.M. He has acted, and as a playwright has had several one-act plays produced in Los Angeles and Seattle, and two optioned in New York.

In addition to his work as novelist, John is also interested in the theater. Though many of his books were published by Bantam/Doubleday/Dell his last fourteen books have been published by Ballantine/Fawcett/Columbine. Subsequently all 32 of his books, have made all the best-seller lists and have been published world wide. Within a month Suffer the Children appeared on all the best-seller lists in the country and made the #1 spot in Canada. Gambling on a first novel by an unknown author, they backed the book with television advertising (one of the first times a paperback original was promoted on television) and the gamble paid off. His agent decided the outline had all the makings of a best-seller, and so did Dell. He put together an outline, and crossed his fingers.Īt that point, things started getting bizarre. Then, in 1976, one of his manuscripts reached Dell, who didn't want to buy it, but asked if he'd be interested in writing a psychological thriller. Eventually he found an agent in New York, who spent several years sending his manuscripts around, and trying to make the rejection slips sound hopeful. Those years garnered him a nice collection of unpublished manuscripts, but not a lot of money. Should anyone ever want to write a novel concerning the car-rental industry or the travails of temporary typists, John can provide excellent background material. He attended several colleges-Antioch, in Ohio, Cerritos, in Norwalk, California, Montana State University and San Francisco State College, variously majoring in anthropology, liberal arts, and theater, but never obtaining a degree.Īfter leaving college, he decided the best thing for a college dropout to do was become a writer, and spent the next fifteen years working in various jobs while attempting to write a book someone would want to publish. John Saul grew up in Whittier California where he graduated from Whittier High School in 1959.

Comes the Blind Fury by John Saul