Acclaimed and highly successful Crime Writer
A Painful Childhood
Born Patricia Daniels on 9th June 1956 in
Miami,
Florida, to Marilyn and Sam Daniels, a secretary and lawyer respectively. In 1963, at the age of 7, Cornwell vividly remembers hanging onto her father's leg and begging him to stay as he walked out on his family to be with his pregnant secretary, soon after which her mother moved Cornwell and her two brothers to
Montreat,
North Carolina. The property that they relocated to was just two miles from the
Rev. Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth. Life became so desperate for the family that, at one point, Cornwell's mother begged the Graham's to take custody her children so that they may have a brighter future. The Graham's flatly refused, but the children were moved to stay with
missionary friends of the Graham's while their mother recuperated. During this time
Ruth Graham befriended the young Patricia, gave her an old leather-bound journal, and encouraged her to write - mainly as a medium for portraying her feelings and emotions.
After transferring from King College, Cornwell attended Davidson College in North Carolina; in her senior year she began working at the Charlotte Observer newspaper, inserting the daily television listings. It was in her time at Davidson College that Cornwell met her future husband, Charles Cornwell. He was 17 years her senior, and also happened to be her English Professor! They were married late 1979, but it was a marriage that was unfortunately to last only 10 years, ending in divorce in 1989.
Gaining Work and Life Experience
Promotion from the Charlotte Observer took Cornwell into the
newsroom as a
clerk. Eventually Cornwell worked her way forward to become a
beat reporter, having the police beat as her main duty. In this time, writing as
Patsy Daniels, Cornwell won an investigative reporting award from the
North Carolina Press Association for her published series on local
prostitution. 'Personal' writing was still important for Cornwell, and in 1983 she published her biography of Ruth Graham,
A Time For Remembering, which won
Gold Medallion Book Award for biography by the
Evangelical Christian Publishers Association in 1985.
In 1984, Cornwell took a job as a part time technical writer in the Virginia Medical Examiner's Office before becoming a full time computer analyst for the office in 1989, after a physician friend in Richmond suggested that she should talk to a medical examiner to get an insider's view of the forensic sciences. The doctor referred her to Dr. Marcella Fierro, the Chief M.E. of Virginia, and then the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia. Cornwell also became a voluntary Police Officer in order to gain knowledge of what community police work was like.
Aside from the painful memories of her childhood, Cornwell has experienced many challenges in her life, numbering anorexia and bulimia, manic depression, rape by a law enforcement officer when she was a young crime reporter, and, in 1983, a car wreck when she was driving whilst intoxicated. Cornwell always refers to the accident as "a necessary life experience" that eventually led her to alcohol rehab. Many of her fans believe that all of these 'life experiences' go towards making Cornwell's novels the literary masterpieces that they are.
A Change in Writing Style
After the success of her first book, Cornwell wrote 3 novels in 4 years - all of which were rejected by several publishers. Disheartened, Cornwell wrote to Sara Ann Freed, an editor at
Mysterious Press, the one publishing house that had softened its rejection with encouragement. Freed told her to dump the male detective who was then her central character. She suggested expanding
Kay Scarpetta, who in Cornwell's early works played only a minor role, and focusing on writing about the world that she knew -
Forensic Science. Following this advice, Cornwell used a sensational
Richmond case of a
serial killer as the foundation for her first novel,
Postmortem, but again it was rejected by the publishers. Cornwell continued to look for a publishing house that would entertain her novel, and in 1990,
Scribner's bought
Postmortem for $6,000. The book went on to be a best seller, and it was the first novel to win
Edgar,
Creasey,
Anthony,
Macavity, and the
French Prix du Roman d'Adventurei in a single year. However, it was not all fame and fortune for Cornwell, as in 1991, she was at the centre of controversy when a
copycat killer used the
MO of the serial killer in
Postmortem; fortunately, he was soon caught and convicted and Cornwell defended her book, even though it did bring her into the spot light in a rather unflattering way! After both the success of
Postmortem and the unfortunate publicity, Cornwell was now a recognised crime writer, and in March 1991 she signed a $385,000 deal for the paperback rights of her second novel,
Body of Evidence - a slight increase from the $6000 received for her original novel!
It was reported by the Chicago Tribune that Columbia Pictures had purchased the rights to Cruel and Unusual for a seven-figure sum, and that Demi Moore was to be contracted in to both produce and take the leading role in the movie version of this successful bestseller. However, this was reported in 1992 and, even to this day, there is no sign of any movie based upon Cornwells novels being filmed or released. Im sure that if or when the film is ever released, Cornwell fans worldwide will have their own expectations as to who should play their favorite characters - among the stars idealised to play Kay Scarpetta include actresses such as Glen Close, Susan Sarandon and even Patricia Cornwell herself!
In 1995 the Putnam Berkley Group managed to easily convince Cornwell to move away from Scribner, partly because she was unhappy about Scribner's timing of the release of The Body Farm, as it clashed with Putnam's release of Clancy's Debt of Honor and probably prevented Cornwell from being first on the New York Times best-seller list. Cornwell signed a three book deal worth $24 million with Putnam, and Cause of Death was published in July 1996, alongside the first non-Scarpetta mystery, Hornet's Nest, which was released in January 1997.
Again, in June 1996 Cornwell's name came up in the wake of a strange real-life drama. 41-year-old ex-FBI agent Eugene Bennett had repeatedly claimed that his ex-wife was a lesbian and that she had an affair with Cornwell in 1992 when 42-year-old Marguerite Bennett worked as an instructor and hostage negotiator at FBI's Quantico facilities. Eugene Bennett carried out many bizarre activities ending on June 23, 1996, when he took his wife's minister hostage and planted pipe bombs at the Northern Virginia Community College where Marguerite Bennett worked as a police lieutenant. For this he was found guilty of, among other charges, attempted murder by a jury on February 11 1997, and despite an insanity claim, was recommended for 61 years in prison. On May 15 1997 he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Within Cornwell's novels, she eventually introduces Scarpetta's neice, Lucy, as having a female partner, and many people speculate that Cornwell herself is a lesbian - however, this has never been confirmed by Cornwell or any person that is close to her.
Patricia Cornwell Today
Patricia Cornwell lives with her dog,
Chopper, and now splits her time between
Richmond,
Virginia and
Los Angeles. She has kept her link to
Davidson College and sponsors
scholarships to Davidson students with exceptional abilities in creative writing. Perhaps Cornwell's most significant contribution to date is the role she played in the creation of the
Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine - the nation's first institution to train
forensic scientists and
pathologists. In addition to her $1.5 million donation, Cornwell has worked to involve top-notch scientists and pathologists in creating what she hopes will become the 'Johns Hopkins of forensic science and medical training.'
'One compelling aspect of Cornwell’s novels is nail biting realism. The experience of reading a Cornwell novel produces an "edge of the seat" anticipation. Finding it impossible to close the book, readers will find themselves staying up all night anxiously turning the pages.' www.patriciacornwell.com
Bibliography
1990
Postmortem
1991
Body of Evidence
1992
All That Remains
1993
Cruel and Unusual
1994
The Body Farm
1995
From Potter's Field
1996
Cause Of Death
1997
Hornet's Nest
1997
Unnatural Exposure
1998
Point Of Origin
1999
Southern Cross
1999
Black Notice
2000
The Last Prescinct
2001
Isle Of Dogs
Ref: http://www.discount-books.de/cornwell/biography.htm
Ref: http://www.patriciacornwell.com
Ref: The Patricia Cornwell Club Biography & Newsletter