Neil Gaiman, an English author of Polish- Jewish descent, was born Nov. 10, 1960, in Portchester, England. His grandfather began a chain of grocery stores where his father worked and his mother was a pharmacist. He grew up with two younger sisters, Claire and Lizzy.

Gaiman was able to read at age four and loved reading Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” He loved libraries as a child, devoured books and was at his happiest when mom and dad would leave him to spend the day at the library while they went to work. For his seventh birthday, he got the C.S. Lewis Series, T”he Chronicles of Narnia.” He attended several Church of England schools.

His notable work, “The Graveyard Book” (2008), is the only book to win both the Carnegie Medal Award and the Newbery Medal Award, and was made into a movie. Gaiman is also a comic book creator, screenwriter and voice actor.

He is best known for his comic book series, The Sandman, one of the greatest graphic novels of all time, and for his novels “Stardust” (1999); “American Gods” (2001), his most popular book; “Coraline” (2002) and “The Graveyard Book” (2008). The first draft of all his books in written with a fountain pen. He writes for all ages and has won many awards. He has sold over 45 million copies of his books, including 30 million graphic novels and 10 million novels.

Gaiman has currently been working on a new picture book entitled “What You Need to be Warm,” along with 13 illustrators. The book published Oct. 31 in the United States, and Gaiman will be donating his royalties from the book to the (UNHCR) United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Gaiman has been a professor in the arts at Brad College since 2014, has married twice and has four children. He now lives outside Minneapolis and loves his cats.

We have two of his books (JF) “The Graveyard Book” and (SF) “Good Omens” (his first published book in 1990).