John Sandford’s first major hit, Rules of Prey, released in 1989, has since spawned over 20 sequels. John Sandford has become a bestselling author many times over and for good reason, his books are a joy to his readers and bring the same high quality writing one would expect from a John Sandford book every time. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa native, born February 23, 1944, shows no signs of slowing down, as he continues to release books in his Prey Series, Virgil Flowers Series, Kidd Series and the odd one off book. He also has a passion for art and photography and a love for hunting and fishing. John Sandford also served in the Army from 1966-68, he has a passion for archaeology, even becoming the principal financial backer for a dig in the Jordan valley of Israel. It was not until 1989 that John Sandford stopped writing daily for the Pioneer Press and with the success of his novels he quit writing for them completely the very next year.įrom that point forward John Sandford became a full time novelist, writing to date, over 30 novels. These stories seemed to resonate deeply with Minnesota residents and the Pulitzer board as well, resulting in John Sandford’s first big win. They followed your average Minnesota farm family during the Midwest farm crisis, taking place over the course of a year. His series “Life on the Land: An American Farm Family” were the stories he had written to result in such a prize. That year his writing efforts would be validated even further as he won a Pulitzer for Non-Deadline Feature Writing. John Sandford’s break out year would come in 1986. That year was also his first brush with a Pulitzer as he made it as a finalist thanks to a series of stories he had written on Native American culture. As usual his work excelled there and John Sandford became a full-time daily columnist by 1980. There he joined the staff of The Saint Paul Pioneer Press as a features reporter. In 1978 John Sandford was looking for a new challenge. He used his Bachelor’s in American history and Masters in Journalism from the University of Iowa to hone his skills, becoming a top writer at the Miami Herald.

Before his first two releases in 1989, John Sandford wrote for the Miami Herald, for seven years during the 1970’s. So from then on John Roswell Camp became John Sandford. The later took off, becoming increasingly more popular than the first. He had two books coming out that year and they decided to release one, The Fools Rush In, under his real name and a second under a pseudonym, Rules of Prey. He created the pseudonym at the request of his publisher in 1989. But that is the real name of an author I am sure you all have heard of, John Sandford. When you think of the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and bestselling novelist John Roswell Camp, you may end up drawing a blank.

Shadow Prey by John Sandford