Sept. 17, 1932 - Springfield, Mass. is the birthdate of American author of mystery/detective fiction Robert B. Parker. He was an only child and his dad worked for the telephone company.
Sept. 17, 1932 - Springfield, Mass. is the birthdate of American author of mystery/detective fiction Robert B. Parker. He was an only child and his dad worked for the telephone company.
He claims to have met his wife, Joan Parker as a toddler at a birthday party and they married in 1956. Robert served in the Army in Korea. In 1971, he earned his PhD in English literature from Boston University. He became a full professor in 1976 and started full-time writing in 1979. He wrote his first novel in 1971 while teaching at Northeastern University. Parker received many awards for his 65 novels over 37 years of writing.
His most famous series of 40 novels highlighting Spenser as the fictional private detective was made into a television series, Spenser for Hire, starring Robert Urich, and a group of television movies were made on this character. Then there was his nine-book series featuring Jesse Stone, which was made into a television series of movies starring Tom Selleck. In 2005, his western “Appaloosa” was made into a movie starring Ed Harris.
Robert and Joan had two sons, David and Daniel. They lived in a three-story Victorian home just outside of Harvard Square. Parker died at his home in Cambridge, Mass. on January 18, 2010, from a heart attack. Joan found him sitting at his desk working on his novel, “Silent Night.”
We have most of his novels here at our library.
