Early life and education
Towles was born and raised in Boston, to Stokley Porter Towles, an investment banker at Brown Brothers Harriman and a philanthropist, and Holly Hollingsworth. His parents later divorced. He has a brother, Stokley Jr.; a sister, Kimbrough; and two stepbrothers. [4] When Towles was 10 years old, he threw a bottle with a message into the Atlantic Ocean. Several weeks later, he received a letter from Harrison Salisbury, then managing editor of The New York Times , who had found the bottle. Towles and Salisbury corresponded for many years afterward. [5]
He graduated from Yale College and received a Master of Arts degree in English from Stanford University, where he was a Scowcroft Fellow. The thesis for his M.A. titled Temptations of Pleasure was published in The Paris Review in 1989. [6]
Career
After graduating from Yale University, Towles was set to teach in China on a two-year fellowship from the Yale China Association. However, this was abruptly canceled due to the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. [7] From 1991 to 2012, he worked as an investment manager and director of research at Select Equity Group in New York. [8] [9]
When Towles was a young man, he credited Peter Matthiessen, nature writer, novelist, and one of the founders of The Paris Review , as the primary inspiration for writing novels. [10] Towles' first novel, Rules of Civility, was successful beyond his expectations. [11]
His second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow , which was on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for 59 weeks, [12] was a finalist for the 2016 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. [13] It was also longlisted for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award. [14] A television adaptation starring Ewan McGregor was released on Paramount+ in March 2024. [15]
Towles' third novel, The Lincoln Highway , was published on October 5, 2021. [16] It was chosen by Amazon as the best book of 2021. [17] As of May 15, 2022, it had been on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list for 30 weeks. [18] In April 2024, Towles released a book of short fiction titled Table for Two . [6]
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