James Grady (author)

Last updated
James Grady
James Grady double shot.jpg
Born (1949-04-30) April 30, 1949 (age 75)
Shelby, Montana, U.S.
Pen nameJames Dalton, Brit Shelby, Nick Russe
OccupationWriter
EducationShelby High School (1967) University of Montana (B.A., Journalism, 1972)
GenresThriller; Muckraking Historical Novels
SubjectsEspionage, police procedurals
Notable works Six Days of the Condor (1974)
Notable awards Grand Prix Du Roman Noir, Raymond Chandler Award, Baka-Misu Award

Two Regardies Magazine awards for Short Fiction

Nominee, Mystery Writers of America Edgar award for short stories
SpouseBonnie Goldstein
Children Rachel Grady Academy Award documentary nominee (Jesus Camp); Nathan Grady, short story author

James Grady (born April 30, 1949) is an American writer and investigative journalist known for his thriller novels on espionage, intrigue, and police procedurals, as well as his screenwriting work for TV shows with Stephen J. Cannell and film work with Brandon Lee, William Katt and David Hasselhoff. Grady has edited fiction anthologies, and published numerous short stories and poems. In 2008, London's Daily Telegraph named Grady as one of "50 crime writers to read before you die". In 2015, The Washington Post compared his prose to George Orwell and Bob Dylan.

Contents

Early life

Grady’s mother, Donna J. Grady, was part of the Martin family, who settled in northern Montana in 1884. Her father worked as a cowboy and card dealer in the saloons of Shelby, MT. Grady’s father, Thomas W. Grady, came from a family of homesteaders. Until Grady was about 17, his father managed the Roxy movie theater in Shelby. Grady describes a pivotal six-month period during his junior year of high school when his father was unemployed. During that time, his mother took on a job as an Assistant Librarian for Toole County in Shelby, which he credits as a significant influence on his personal development. As a Teenage Republican, Grady was the youngest member of the 1964 Republican Party State Convention’s Platform Committee. His first creative writing success was authoring his high school senior class 1967 play.

Grady graduated from the University Of Montana School of Journalism in 1972, though he technically finished university studies in 1971. He studied with poet Richard Hugo and was a Sears Congressional Journalism Intern from January to April 1971, assigned to the D.C. staff of U.S. Senator Lee Metcalf (D-MT). He was the movie reviewer for the university student newspaper The Kaimin. He received a Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater in 2005. Grady lovingly credits his four college summers working on his hometown Shelby, MT's city road, water and sewer crew with both letting him pay his own way through university and increasing the scope and depth of his education.

Career

In 1971, Grady worked as a Research Analyst and committee aide for the Montana Constitutional Convention, which adopted a renewed state Constitution in 1972. He received a Fellowship to spend 1974 on the staff of U.S. Sen. Lee Metcalf (D-MT). From 1975 to mid-1980, during the post-Watergate era, he worked with muckraking investigative journalist Jack Anderson.

Grady is the author of the 1974 espionage thriller novel Six Days of the Condor , which was famously adapted to film as Three Days of the Condor (1975), starring Robert Redford and directed by Sydney Pollack.

Grady has contributed journalism to Slate, The Washington Post , Washingtonian, American Film, The New Republic , Sport, Parade, Perfect 10,The Great Falls (Montana) Tribune, The Shelby (Montana) Promoter, The Daily Missoulian (Montana), PoliticsDaily.com and the Journal of Asian Martial Arts .

He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, East.

Personal life

Grady married Bonnie Goldstein in 1985. [1] He is the stepfather of Rachel Grady, director of the documentary Jesus Camp . He is the father of Nathan Grady.

Works

Novels

Short stories

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Aldiss</span> British science fiction writer (1925–2017)

Brian Wilson Aldiss was an English writer, artist and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for occasional pseudonyms during the mid-1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Sturgeon</span> American speculative fiction writer (1918–1985)

Theodore Sturgeon was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction, and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 short stories, 11 novels, and several scripts for Star Trek: The Original Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Zelazny</span> U.S. science fiction and fantasy writer and poet (1937–1995)

Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American poet and writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times and the Hugo Award six times, including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published under the title This Immortal (1966) and then the novel Lord of Light (1967).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramsey Campbell</span> English author (born1946)

Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awards. Three of his novels have been adapted into films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shelby, Montana</span> City in Montana, United States

Shelby is a city in and the county seat of Toole County, Montana, United States. The population was 3,169 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Metcalf (writer)</span> Canadian writer, editor and critic

John Wesley Metcalf is an English-born Canadian writer, editor and critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Crowley (author)</span> American writer, primarily speculative fiction (born 1942)

John Crowley is an American author of fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction. Crowley studied at Indiana University and has a second career as a documentary film writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Rankin</span> Scottish author (born 1960)

Sir Ian James Rankin is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neal Pollack</span> American journalist and novelist

Neal Pollack is an American satirist, novelist, short story writer, and journalist. He lives in Austin, Texas. Pollack has written 10 books: The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, Never Mind the Pollacks, Beneath the Axis of Evil, Alternadad,Stretch,Jewball, Downward-Facing Death, Open Your Heart,Repeat, and Keep Mars Weird. He is also a three-time Jeopardy! champion.

<i>Six Days of the Condor</i> Novel by James Grady

Six Days of the Condor is a thriller novel by American author James Grady, first published in 1974 by W.W. Norton. A suspense drama set in Washington, D.C., the plot was considerably revised for the 1975 film adaptation Three Days of the Condor.

Laird Samuel Barron is an American author and poet, much of whose work falls within the horror, noir, or horror noir and dark fantasy genres. He has also been the managing editor of the online literary magazine Melic Review. He lives in Upstate New York.

Otto Penzler is an American editor of mystery fiction, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.

David Allan Cates, in Madison, Wisconsin, is an American novelist and poet, and the executive director of Missoula Medical Aid. His work has appeared in a number of publications which include The Sun, Outside Magazine, The Montanan, and The New York Times Sophisticated Traveler.

Maxim Jakubowski is an English writer of crime fiction, erotica, and science fiction, and also a rock music critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Gorman (writer)</span> American novelist (born 1941)

Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was an American writer and short fiction anthologist. He published in almost every genre, but is best known for his work in the crime, mystery, western, and horror fields. His non-fiction work has been published in such publications as The New York Times and Redbook.

Richard Weston Burgin was an American fiction writer, editor, composer, critic, and academic. He published nineteen books, and from 1996 through 2013 was a professor of Communications and English at Saint Louis University. He was also the founder and publisher of the internationally distributed award-winning literary magazine Boulevard.

"Method Three for Murder" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first serialized in three issues of The Saturday Evening Post. It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection Three at Wolfe's Door, published by the Viking Press in 1960.

Richard Arnold Wilber is an American author, poet, editor and professor. His novel, Alien Morning, was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2017. His other novels include The Cold Road and Rum Point. He has published more than fifty short stories, novelettes or novellas in magazines including Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Stonecoast Review, Gulf Stream Review and Pulphouse and in numerous anthologies. His other works include the memoir, My Father's Game: Life, Death, Baseball, several college textbooks, including Media Matters,, Modern Media Writing, Magazine Feature Writing and "The Writer's Handbook for Editing and Revision" and the collections Rambunctious: Nine Tales of Determination, The Wandering Warriors, Where Garagiola Waits, To Leuchars and The Secret Skater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John W. Sexton</span> Irish poet and writer

John William Sexton is an Irish poet, short-story writer, radio script-writer and children's novelist. He also writes under the pseudonyms of Sex W. Johnston and Jack Brae Curtingstall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kill Now—Pay Later</span> Short story by Rex Stout

"Kill Now—Pay Later" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first serialized in three issues of The Saturday Evening Post. It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection Trio for Blunt Instruments, published by the Viking Press in 1964.

References

  1. "Miss Goldstein Weds James Grady, Author". The New York Times. April 1, 1985. Archived from the original on April 23, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2020.