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For other people named Thomas Harris, see Thomas Harris (disambiguation).

William Thomas Harris III (born September 22, 1940)[1] is an American writer. He is the author of a series of suspense novels featuring the character Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, including The Silence of the Lambs, which became the third film to win Academy Awards in all of the five major categories.[2] Harris’s novels have sold more than 50 million copies, with The Silence of the Lambs selling 10 million copies as of 2019.

Biography

Harris was born in Jackson, Tennessee,[3] but moved as a child with his family to Rich, Mississippi. He was introverted and bookish in grade school and then blossomed in high school.[4] He attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he majored in English and graduated in 1964. While in college, he worked as a reporter for the local newspaper, the Waco Tribune-Herald, covering the police beat. In 1968, he moved to New York City to work for the Associated Press until 1974 when he began work on his debut novel, Black Sunday.[2]

Reception

The Silence of the Lambs received positive reviews.[citation needed] Its follow-up, Hannibal, received high praise from Stephen King, but John Lanchester said it had a “sense of discontinuity”.[5] The novelist John Dunning said Harris was “a talent of the first rank”.[6] In 2019, Harris elaborated on his process, described as “almost passive”, by saying: “Sometimes you really have to shove and grunt and sweat. Some days you go to your office and you’re the only one who shows up, none of the characters show up, and you sit there by yourself, feeling like an idiot. And some days everybody shows up ready to work. You have to show up at your office every day. If an idea comes by, you want to be there to get it in.”[7] In 2007, Harris was presented with a Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.[8]

Personal life

Harris avoids publicity and participated in few interviews between 1976 and 2019.[9][10][11] At Baylor University, he met fellow student Harriet Anne Haley and they married in June 1961. They had one daughter, Elizabeth Anne, and divorced in August 1968.[12] Harris remained close to his mother, Polly, and called her every night no matter where he was. He often discussed particular scenes from his novels with her.[13] Polly died on December 31, 2011.[14]

As of 1991, Harris lived in South Florida and had a summer home in Sag Harbor, New York.[11] His partner as of 1999 was Pace Barnes, who, according to USA Today, worked in publishing and “is as outgoing as he is quiet”.[15] Harris’ friend and literary agent Morton Janklow described him as a “wonderfully jovial” and passionate chef, with “a courtliness you associate with the South”.[13]

In his first major interview in 43 years, with The New York Times in 2019 to promote Cari Mora, Harris said he was a nature lover, and a long-time visitor and volunteer of the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, an animal rescue center in Miami, Florida, for 20 years. The staff were not aware of Harris’s fame until a few years before the 2019 interview.[7] He described fame as “more of a nuisance than anything else”.[7]

Works

Hannibal Lecter novels

  1. Red Dragon (1981)
  2. The Silence of the Lambs (1988)
  3. Hannibal (1999)
  4. Hannibal Rising (2006; prequel)

Screenplays

See also

References

  1. ^ Hoban, Phoebe (April 15, 1991). “The Silence of the Writer”. New York. pp. 48–50.
  2. ^ a b Conklin 1999
  3. ^ Cowley 2006 p. 45
  4. ^ Laughlin 1999
  5. ^ Lanchester, John (July 29, 1999). “Slapping the Clammy Flab”. London Review of Books. Vol. 21, no. 15. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  6. ^ Dunning 1992 p. 159
  7. ^ a b c Alter, Alexandra (May 18, 2019). “Hannibal Lecter’s Creator Cooks Up Something New (No Fava Beans or Chianti)”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  8. ^ “Lifetime Achievement Award”. Bram Stoker Awards. Retrieved October 17, 2025.
  9. ^ Tom Tivnan (May 15, 2019). “How Thomas Harris defined a genre and created fiction’s most likeable villain”. Penguin Books Limited.
  10. ^ Alexandra Alter (May 18, 2019). “Hannibal Lecter’s Creator Cooks Up Something New (No Fava Beans or Chianti”. The New York Times.
  11. ^ a b Hoban 1991
  12. ^ Streibling 2001
  13. ^ a b Cowley 2006 p. 45
  14. ^ Bolivar 2012
  15. ^ Minzesheimer 1999
  16. ^ Cari Mora, by Thomas Harris. Grand Central Publishing. January 9, 2019. ISBN 9781538750131. Retrieved January 9, 2019.

Sources