Outliers (Gladwell) - Author Bio

Author Bio 
• Birth—September 3, 1963
• Where—England, U.K.; reared in Canada
• Education—B.A., University of Toronto, Canada
• Currently—New York, New York, USA


At the start of the 21st century, a new form of narrative nonfiction emerged, blending science, sociology, and pop culture into a compulsively readable hybrid genre marked by originality, accessibility, and a breezy, anecdotal style. As much as any single writer, and perhaps more than most, journalist and bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell has helped to forge that genre.

Born in the U.K. and raised in rural Canada, Gladwell stumbled into journalism purely by accident. After college, he wanted to pursue a career in advertising; but when he was unable to find work in that field, he took a job with the conservative U.S. monthly The American Spectator. In 1987, he joined the Washington Post, where he reported on business and science for nearly a decade. Then, in 1996, Tina Brown hired him to work for The New Yorker. (Brown left the magazine in 1998. Gladwell is still on staff.)

Almost from the beginning, Gladwell's work for The New Yorker attracted attention. Of particular interest was a piece he wrote in June 1996 about a mysterious and dramatic drop in the New York City crime rate. Drawing its title—and its argument—from the field of epidemiology, "The Tipping Pont" described a single moment in time when the momentum for change becomes virtually unstoppable. The piece generated an enormous reader response, and Gladwell began to explore the applications of the principle to other sorts of changes— ideas, behaviors, new products, etc. In 2000, he published a full-length book that reached a tipping point of its own and logged a spectacular 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Readers loved The Tipping Point for its clear, easy-to-understand language and examples drawn from real life; but it was the business community, always anxious to spot the next big trend, that recognized the relevance of Gladwell's ideas to sales, marketing, and public relations. (As a result of his popularity with this group, he has become a much-in-demand public speaker.) Then, in 2005, Gladwell published Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, an entertaining look at the role of snap judgments and intuition in decision making. Although it did not achieve the overwhelming success of his first book, Blink, too, became a No. 1 bestseller.

Outliers—an examination of why some people stand out, succeeding over others—was published in 2008 and became yet another best seller.  What the Dog Saw, his fourth book, was published in 2009.

Extras
• Gladwell's English father is a civil engineer and his mother is a Jamaican-born psychotherapist.

• Growing up in Canada at a time when the country was essentially a socialist nation, Gladwell was a self-professed right-wing kid. "Being a conservative was the kind of fun, radical thing to do," he told the New York Times. He notes that his politics have changed over the years.

• When Gladwell decided to grow his formerly short and conservatively cut hair into an Afro, he began to receive special, unwanted attention (more speeding tickets, additional checks in airport security lines, etc.). These experiences got him thinking about how first impressions lead to snap judgments—which inspired Blink.

• Starbucks' founder Howard Schultz publicly attributed his company's success to the tipping-point phenomenon.

• In 2005, Time magazine named Gladwell one of the 100 Most Influential People. (Author info from Barnes and Noble.)