Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Grahame-Smith) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—December 16, 1775
• Where—Steventon in Hampshire, UK
• Death—July 18, 1817
• Where—Winchester, Hampshire
• Education—taught at home by her father

Jane Austen's delightful, carefully wrought novels of manners remain surprisingly relevant, nearly 200 years after they were first published. Her novels—Pride and Prejudice and Emma among them—are those rare books that offer us a glimpse at the mores of a specific period while addressing the complexities of love, honor, and responsibility that still intrigue us today. (From Barnes & Noble.)

Read more about Jane Austen on our Prejudice Reading Guide.

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Seth Grahame-Smith is an American author and film producer, best known for his 2009 novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. He lives in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Grahame-Smith's first widely published book was the nonfiction The Big Book of Porn: A Penetrating Look at the World of Dirty Movies, a look at the history of the erotic art form, which was published in 2005. The next year, Grahame-Smith published The Spider-Man Handbook: The Ultimate Training Manual, an examination of Marvel Comics' Spider-man, with an introduction by Stan Lee. In 2007, Grahame-Smith wrote How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills, a tongue-in-cheek guide to help readers escape situations most often shown in horror films. The book's introduction was written by horror film director Wes Craven. The next year, Grahame-Smith wrote the satirical Pardon My President: Fold-and-Mail Apologies for 8 Years, a collection of letters penned by Grahame-Smith addressed to various parties in order to apologize for the wrongs they had suffered under the administration of George W. Bush.

Grahame-Smith received the idea for a mash-up of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with elements of the zombie genre from his editor at Quirk Books, Jason Rekulak, who had been wanting to make a book of the type for quite some time. Grahame-Smith, enamored with the idea, began working on the novel, first by reading Pride and Prejudice and then by meticulously plotting out where to insert the zombie elements, a process he has described as similar to microsurgery. Though the publishing company was initially reluctant to publish the book in fear of alienating possible fans of the books, the book was eventually published in 2009 in hopes of selling several thousand copies and breaking even, as had been done with Grahame-Smith's previous two books. However, once the cover and title of the book began circling around the internet, the book's popularity grew, eventually to the point where it became a New York Times bestseller.

Due to the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Grahame-Smith has been contracted to write two follow-up books, one of which is reported to be titled Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

He'll make his debut as a comic book writer on Marvel Zombies Return: Hulk with artist Richard Elson.

Grahame-Smith has been a producer of several films and television shows. In 2001, he was the coordinating producer on two episodes of History's Mysteries. (From Wikipedia.)