Stuart Woods

In 1960, Stuart Gordon moved to New York to look for a writing job. With his degree in Sociology, he found a job in an advertising agency since magazines and newspapers weren't hiring. He moved to London to work for another ad agency when he decided to finally write the novel he had always wanted to write. But he got distracted by a new endeavor: sailing. He wrote a couple non-fiction books about sailing and traveling which were published in Britain.

They sold the rights to his non-fiction book to W.W. Norton, who also wanted to publish Gordon's still unfinished novel. Eight years after he began writing it, Chiefs was published in March 1981. It received much critical acclaim and was made into a CBS mini-series starring Charlton Heston. Since then he has published over 50 novels many of which are New York Times bestsellers. His next, Collateral Damage, will be published in January 2013. He lives with his dog in Florida, New York and Maine.