Patterson, James

The American author, James Patterson, was born and grew up in Newburgh in the State of New York. His father was an insurance clerk and his mother a teacher. After state schooling, he studied at Manhattan College in the Bronx, New York, and took his B.A in 1969. He started at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and got his M.A in English in 1970. He then dropped his studies, moved back to New York and got a job as a copywriter at the advertising firm, J. Walter Thompson.