Background
Thomas Harris was born on April 11, 1940, in Jackson, Mississippi. He was raised in the town of Rich where his father worked as a farmer.
Thomas Harris, one of the most notable writers of the last four decades. Photograph: Robin Hill.
1301 S University Parks Dr, Waco, TX 76706, USA
Thomas Harris earned his bachelor's degree in English from Baylor University in 1964.
Thomas Harris Author Red Dragon
Thomas Harris at the beginning of his career.
Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris with a famous American Actor Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, who played Hannibal Lector.
Thomas Harris, 2018.
Thomas Harris in France, 2000.
William Thomas Harris III (born September 22, 1940) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter.
Thomas Harris (writer), Brett Ratner (director) and Dino De Laurentiis (producer) at the Red Dragon premiere. Photograph: E Charbonneau/BEI/Rex Features.
Thomas Harris Author Red Dragon
Thomas Harris at the beginning of his career.
Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris with a famous American Actor Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, who played Hannibal Lector.
Thomas Harris, 2018.
Thomas Harris in France, 2000.
William Thomas Harris III (born September 22, 1940) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter.
Thomas Harris in the garden by his residence.
William Thomas Harris III is an American writer
Thomas Harris Author Red Dragon, in the Miami area 2014.
Thomas Harris (writer), Brett Ratner (director) and Dino De Laurentiis (producer) at the Red Dragon premiere. Photograph: E Charbonneau/BEI/Rex Features.
1301 S University Parks Dr, Waco, TX 76706, USA
Thomas Harris earned his bachelor's degree in English from Baylor University in 1964.
(As part of the search for a serial murderer nicknames "Bu...)
As part of the search for a serial murderer nicknames "Buffalo Bill," FBI trainee Clarice Starling is given an assignment. She must visit a man confined to a high-security facility for the criminally insane and interview him. That man, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, is a former psychiatrist with unusual tastes and an intense curiosity about the darker corners of the mind. His intimate understanding of the killer and of Clarice herself form the core of Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs - an unforgettable classic of suspense fiction.
https://www.amazon.com/Silence-Lambs-Hannibal-Lecter/dp/0312924585/?tag=2022091-20
1991
(From the genius of Thomas Harris, the #1 New York Times b...)
From the genius of Thomas Harris, the #1 New York Times bestselling author who introduced the world to Hannibal Lecter, comes the terrifying and prophetic novel that set the standard for international suspense and heralded one of the most arresting voices in contemporary fiction. It’s the event of the year. Eighty thousand fans have converged in New Orleans for Super Bowl Sunday. Among them is a young man named Michael Lander. But he has not come to watch the game. A tool for a radical terrorist group, he’s has come to play one. To enact revenge. To feed the rage of others. And the whole world will be watching. Unless someone stops him.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Sunday-Thomas-Harris-ebook/dp/B002DMZ9U4/?tag=2022091-20
2001
("Red Dragon", "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal", ...)
"Red Dragon", "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal", the three international bestsellers that provided literature with one of its most memorable characters, now available in one volume.
https://www.amazon.com/Hannibal-Lecter-Omnibus-Thomas-Harris/dp/0434009059/?tag=2022091-20
2002
((Hannibal Lecter Series) He is one of the most haunting c...)
(Hannibal Lecter Series) He is one of the most haunting characters in all of literature. At last the evolution of his evil is revealed. Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him. Hannibal’s uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle’s beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki. Lady Murasaki helps Hannibal to heal. With her help he flourishes, becoming the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France. But Hannibal’s demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn. He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death’s prodigy.
https://www.amazon.com/Hannibal-Rising-Lecter-Thomas-Harris/dp/044024286X/?tag=2022091-20
2007
((Hannibal Lecter Book 1) FBI agent Will Graham once riske...)
(Hannibal Lecter Book 1) FBI agent Will Graham once risked his sanity to capture Hannibal Lecter, an ingenious killer like no other. Now, he’s following the bloodstained pattern of the Tooth Fairy, a madman who’s already wiped out two families. To find him, Graham has to understand him. To understand him, Graham has only one place left to go: the mind of Dr. Lecter.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Dragon-Hannibal-Lecter-Book-ebook/dp/B001ODEP8U/?tag=2022091-20
2009
((Hannibal Lecter Book 3) Invite Hannibal Lecter into the ...)
(Hannibal Lecter Book 3) Invite Hannibal Lecter into the palace of your mind and be invited into his mind palace in turn. Note the similarities in yours and his, the high vaulted chambers of your dreams, the shadowed halls, the locked storerooms where you dare not go, the scrap of half-forgotten music, the muffled cries from behind a wall. In one of the most eagerly anticipated literary events of the decade, Thomas Harris takes us once again into the mind of a killer, crafting a chilling portrait of insidiously evolving evil - a tour de force of psychological suspense. Seven years have passed since Dr. Hannibal Lecter escaped from custody, seven years since FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling interviewed him in a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane. The doctor is still at large, pursuing his own ineffable interests, savoring the scents, the essences of an unguarded world. But Starling has never forgotten her encounters with Dr. Lecter, and the metallic rasp of his seldom-used voice still sounds in her dreams.
https://www.amazon.com/Hannibal-Novel-Lecter-Book-ebook/dp/B002DNZGIS/?tag=2022091-20
2009
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Dragon-Thomas-Harris/dp/009953293X/?tag=2022091-20
2009
(Underlining over ten allegories and many extended metapho...)
Underlining over ten allegories and many extended metaphors, “The Vandal,” Harris’ first self-published book, is a poetry epic about the ambiguous and emotional deposits of his own “Mary Sue,” who delves straight into one of the most versatile and unconventional exhibitions of melodrama and manipulation in the modern literary catalogue. Harris does not hold back, making dramatic remarks as well as ensuring an alter-ego at hand through the abstract photography of his face that fills most pages. His repertoire also includes his other concept art and works from fellow artists around the world. On the very surface, Harris writes about an urban vandal who leaves the night to become famous. Seeing that he does not belong, the vandal flees to the suburbs and, at a house party, falling deeply in love with someone, he later finds that they have stolen his art and soul. While experiencing guilt and later grief about ignoring insights from his past, the vandal must rediscover his meaning and reassess what he wants in the long run. “The Vandal” is not at all what you would expect. It is a coming-of-age drama of galactic and fantastical proportions. Every character is meant to represent something else for different layers entirely. Individual poems have no clear stylistic ending, and many stanzas frequently switch from consonant to dissonant timbres and fluctuating voices, in like with avant-garde symphonies. “The Vandal” explicitly criticizes topics like class, gender, and technology. All of the proceeds from “The Vandal” will go to helping Harris afford college in the fall.
https://www.amazon.com/Vandal-Thomas-Harris/dp/1719003920/?tag=2022091-20
2018
(From the creator of Hannibal Lecter and The Silence of th...)
From the creator of Hannibal Lecter and The Silence of the Lambs comes a story of evil, greed, and the consequences of dark obsession. Twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked it for years. Leading the pack is Hans-Peter Schneider. Driven by unspeakable appetites, he makes a living fleshing out the violent fantasies of other, richer men. Cari Mora, caretaker of the house, has escaped from the violence in her native country. She stays in Miami on a wobbly Temporary Protected Status, subject to the iron whim of ICE. She works at many jobs to survive.
https://www.amazon.com/Cari-Mora-Novel-Thomas-Harris/dp/1538750147/?tag=2022091-20
2019
Thomas Harris was born on April 11, 1940, in Jackson, Mississippi. He was raised in the town of Rich where his father worked as a farmer.
Harris attended the Clarksdale High School in Rich, Mississippi until he left for Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Baylor University in 1964. While pursuing an English major by day and working as a reporter at the News-Tribune by night.
After graduating from the Baylor University in Texas, Harris traveled Europe for a time. Back in the United States, he worked for the Associated Press out of New York. Not coincidentally, his duties for the press included covering murders and other crimes. This helped fuel his imagination in the fictional world, and he began to write macabre stories for magazines that began to show his attention for detail that would make his subsequent novels so popular.
In 1975, he wrote his first novel, Black Sunday, about a diabolical plot to kill thousands with a blimp during the Superbowl. Perhaps ahead of his time, the terrorism of September 11, 2001, led to many stadiums being turned into no-fly zones due to fears of a similar attack. The book was turned into a film - Black Sunday (1977) - a very short two years after being published. Following its success, he devoted his career entirely to fictional novelization.
In 1981, Harris wrote his first book in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, Red Dragon. Though the character of Lecter did not become famous (or infamous, as the case may be) for another decade, the book did spark a loosely-based movie, Man Hunter (1986), which was quickly dismissed at first, grossing back only about half its cost. Then, in 1988, Harris wrote another novel about the character Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs. This time, he gave the character more of a presence, although he still did not dominate the book. When this was turned into a film three years later as The Silence of the Lambs (1991), it became an instant hit and swept the "Big 5" at the Academy Awards, becoming only the third movie to do so.
After the success of The Silence of the Lambs in both movie and book form, there became a growing demand among fans - and film producer Dino De Laurentiis - for there to be another chapter in the Hannibal Lector series. It took 11 years between novels, but Harris finally delivered again in 1999 with the best-selling novel Hannibal. It was made into a film two years later in Hannibal (2001) and, although dismissed by some critics and fans for straying from the book in parts (as well as Jodie Foster's non-appearance as Agent Clarisse Starling), it set opening records in box office sales for an R-rated film.
Because of the large box office take and the fact that Anthony Hopkins, who won an Oscar for his role in the second Lecter film, did not play Lecter in Man Hunter (1986), De Laurentis and Harris came to terms to make a second version of the first book, this time properly titled Red Dragon (2002). This film version was more in keeping with the book than the first film was.
Unable to escape from being known as the man who created Lecter, Harris again agreed to make not only another novel on the character, but to write the material for the film adaption as well. The current working title is Behind the Mask. As of 2005, Harris resides in Miami, Florida, and Sag Harbor, New York, United States.
Despite his bestselling status, Harris has not been in the public eye for some time, as he does not do interviews and divides his time between homes in south Florida and Long Island.
Harris` chief achievement came in 1981 when his famous novel, Red Dragon, was released. The instant success of the first book paved way for sequels in Hannibal series: The Silence of the Lambs (1988), Hannibal (1999), and Hannibal Rising (2006). His second (and his most famous) novel entitled The Silence of the Lambs and it is still considered by many to be a masterpiece of suspense. The book earned huge praise and many accolades. In 1991, it had been adapted into a major motion picture starring Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Lecter. The movie turned out to be a blockbuster attaining several Academy Awards. Other books in the series include Hannibal (1999) and Hannibal Rising (2006). Recently Harris has written screenplay for Hannibal (2013) TV series that again succeeded to garner positive reviews.
(Underlining over ten allegories and many extended metapho...)
2018(From the genius of Thomas Harris, the #1 New York Times b...)
2001("Red Dragon", "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal", ...)
2002(From the creator of Hannibal Lecter and The Silence of th...)
2019((Hannibal Lecter Book 1) FBI agent Will Graham once riske...)
2009(As part of the search for a serial murderer nicknames "Bu...)
1991((Hannibal Lecter Book 3) Invite Hannibal Lecter into the ...)
2009((Hannibal Lecter Series) He is one of the most haunting c...)
2007Being a crime reporter provided him with unique insight in the mind of criminals and their malevolent world. This new perspective of things facilitated him when he began working on his first novel.
As Tomas Harris stated himself: "Let me tell you about my day. I get up at 8 o'clock in the morning. At 8:30 am, I leave the house and I arrive at my office at 8:37. I stay in the office until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I get in my Porsche and I'm home at 2:03 because the one-way streets make it faster for me to drive. And between 8:36 am and 2 pm, I'm doing one of three things: I'm writing. I'm staring out the window. Or I'm writing on the floor."
Quotations:
"And be grateful. Our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real."
"You must understand that when you are writing a novel you are not making anything up. It's all there and you just have to find it."
"When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin', but not to help."
"We rarely get to prepare ourselves in meadows or on graveled walks; we do it on short notice in places without windows, hospital corridors, rooms like this lounge with its cracked plastic sofa and Cinzano ashtrays, where the cafe curtains cover blank concrete. In rooms like this, with so little time, we prepare our gestures, get them by heart so we can do them when we're frightened in the face of Doom."
"How seldom we recognize the sound when the bolt of our fate slides home."
"Fear comes with imagination, it’s a penalty, it’s the price of imagination."
"Human emotions are a gift from our animal ancestors. Cruelty is a gift humanity has given itself."
"He sees very clearly - he damn sure sees through me. It's hard to accept that someone can understand you without wishing you well. At Starling's age it hadn't happened to her much."
"I think it's easy to mistake understanding for empathy - we want empathy so badly. Maybe learning to make that distinction is part of growing up. It's hard and ugly to know somebody can understand you without even liking you.
We rarely get to prepare ourselves in meadows or on graveled walks; we do it on short notice in places without windows, hospital corridors, rooms like this lounge with its cracked plastic sofa and Cinzano ashtrays, where the cafe curtains cover blank concrete. In rooms like this, with so little time, we prepare our gestures, get them by heart so we can do them when we're frightened in the face of Doom."
"Spaces devoted to Hannibal Lecter’s earliest years differ from the other archives in being incomplete. Some are static scenes, fragmentary, like painted attic shards held together by blank plaster. Other rooms hold sound and motion, great snakes wrestling and heaving in the dark and lit in flashes. Pleas and screaming fill some places on the grounds where Hannibal himself cannot go. But the corridors do not echo screaming, and there is music if you like."
"Hannibal at eighteen was rooting for Mephistopheles and contemptuous of Faust, but he only half-listened to the climax. He was watching and breathing Lady Murasaki..."
"Writing novels is the hardest thing I've ever done, including digging irrigation ditches."
"In the vaults of our hearts and brains, danger waits. All the chambers are not lovely, light and high. There are holes in the floor of the mind, like those in a medieval dungeon floor - the stinking oubliettes, named for forgetting, bottle-shaped cells in solid rock with the trapdoor in the top. Nothing escapes from them quietly to ease us. A quake, some betrayal by our safeguards, and sparks of memory fire the noxious gases - things trapped for years fly free, ready to explode in pain and drive us to dangerous behavior..."
As a child Harris was introverted and spent most of his time reading. His mother claimed that he was an avid reader and writer. He was highly inspired by Hemingway’s work.
Although he is known for writing dark and disturbing horror stories, he is known to friends and publishers as an extremely friendly, outgoing and polite person. Harris also was very close to his mother and used to call her every night until her death in 2011.
Harris' friend and literary agent Morton Janklow said of him: "He's one of the good guys. He is big, bearded and wonderfully jovial. If you met him, you would think he was a choirmaster. He loves cooking - he's done the Le Cordon Bleu exams - and it's great fun to sit with him in the kitchen while he prepares a meal and see that he's as happy as a clam. He has these old-fashioned manners, a courtliness you associate with the South."
Quotes from others about the person
Jason Arthur, publisher at William Heinemann, said: “There is no doubt in my mind that Thomas Harris remains one of the most notable writers of the last four decades, and the publication of his first novel in 13 years – his first non-Hannibal novel in over 40 – will be a significant publishing event.”
While pursuing an English major by day and working as a reporter at the News-Tribune by night, Harris met and married a fellow student named Harriet. They had one daughter, Anne, before they divorced in the 1960s.
As of today, he lives in South Florida and has a summer home in Sag Harbor, New York. His long-term domestic partner is Pace Barnes, a woman who, according to USA Today, "used to work in publishing and is as outgoing as he is quiet."
