James McGrath Morris (born 1954) is an American biographer.
Morris was raised in Paris, France; Brussels, Belgium; and Washington, DC. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree at American University and a master's degree at George Washington University. He is married, with three children, and makes his home with his wife, Patty Morris, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[1]
Morris has worked as a journalist, book publisher, high school teacher, and independent writer.[2] He began his professional career as a radio news broadcaster in New Mexico in 1978. He then spent a decade working for radio networks, newspapers, and magazines in Jefferson City, Missouri; Washington, DC; and Ithaca, New York.
In 1987, Morris began a nine-year stint working in publishing, running Seven Locks Press, a publisher of public affairs books in Washington, DC, and Public Interest Publications, a distributor of books and publications produced by Washington think-tanks and interest groups.
In 1996, Morris became a high school teacher and spent nine years working for Fairfax County Schools. During this time he wrote and published Jailhouse Journalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars and The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism.[3] The Rose Man of Sing Sing was selected as one of the best non-fiction books of 2004 by the Washington Post, optioned as a movie, and released as an audio book by Random House. Its critical and commercial success prompted Morris to leave teaching and work full-time as an independent writer.
In 2010, Morris published Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power.[4] The Wall Street Journal deemed was one of the five best books on American moguls and one of the five best books on American newspaper publishers[5] while Booklist placed on its 2010 list of the ten best biographies of the year.[6]
In 2009, with fellow biographers, Morris co-founded Biographers International Organization (BIO), a non-profit organization founded to promote the art and craft of biography, and to further the professional interests of its practitioners.[7] In 2012, he was elected as its president.[8]
In 2014 he published Revolution by Murder: Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and the Plot to Kill Henry Clay Frick," a Kindle Single.[9]
Morris's following book, Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, The First Lady of the Black Press, was published in 2015 and widely reviewed and became a New York Times Bestseller [10][11]
The Ambulance Drivers: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War was published in 2017 by Da Capo Press.[12] He is currently writing a biography of Tony Hillerman.