Louis Bayard | |
---|---|
![]() Bayard at the 2022 Texas Book Festival | |
Born | Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. | November 30, 1963
Education | |
Occupations |
|
Spouse | Don Montuori (c. 1988–present) |
Children | 2 |
Website | louisbayard |
Notes | |
Louis Bayard (born November 30, 1963) is an American author. His historical mysteries include The Pale Blue Eye , Mr. Timothy, The Black Tower, The School of Night, and Roosevelt's Beast, [4] and they have been translated into 11 languages. [5] [ non-primary source needed ]
His novel The Pale Blue Eye was adapted into a film of the same name, and released in January 2023. [6]
Bayard was born on November 30, 1963, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and grew up in Northern Virginia. He graduated from Princeton University and received a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. He lives in Washington, D.C., and teaches fiction writing at George Washington University. [1] [2] [7]
He was a staffer at the U.S. House of Representatives, working for Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and as press secretary for then Representative Phil Sharp (D-Indiana).
Bayard's first two novels, Fool's Errand (1999) and Endangered Species (2001), were romantic comedies with modern settings. [8] [9] His third novel, Mr. Timothy, published by HarperCollins, was a Victorian thriller featuring a grown-up Tiny Tim from Dickens' A Christmas Carol . [10] Bayard's novel was a New York Times Notable book and was chosen one of the 10 best books of the year by People magazine. [11] [12] [13] His 2006 novel The Pale Blue Eye is a murder mystery set at West Point in 1830, where the young Edgar Allan Poe was a cadet. The book was nominated for an Edgar (2007) and a Dagger. It was optioned for a film adaptation by writer-director Scott Cooper. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] Bayard's fifth novel, The Black Tower (Morrow), set in Paris in 1818, follows the real-life detective Eugène François Vidocq as he investigates the mystery surrounding Marie Antoinette's son. [19] [20] [21] His novel The School of Night (2010) shuttles between modern-day Washington, D.C., and Elizabethan England, where a group of scholars including Walter Ralegh, Christopher Marlowe, and the scientist Thomas Harriot explore dangerous questions. [22] [23] Roosevelt's Beast was published on March 18, 2014. [24] It tells of an action adventure involving Theodore Roosevelt and his son, Kermit, through Brazil's Da Dúvida River circa 1914. [25]
Bayard has also written book reviews and essays for The Washington Post , The New York Times , Salon and Nerve . He has appeared at the National Book Festival, and he has written the New York Times recaps for Downton Abbey [26] and Wolf Hall . [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] He was the keynote speaker for 1455 StoryFest (2022).
From Louis Bayard, the acclaimed author of Mr. Timothy and The Pale Blue Eye, comes The Black Tower, a stunning and pitch-perfect novel featuring the real-life criminal who transformed himself into the world's first and greatest detective. In The Black Tower, Bayard deftly interweaves political intrigue, epic treachery, cover-ups, and conspiracies into a gripping portrait of family redemption—and brings to life an indelible portrait of the mighty and profane Eugène François Vidocq, history's legendary investigator.