Scott Turow

Films have been based on several of his books.

• Name — Scott Turow • Birth Name — Scott Frederick Turow • Genre — Fiction, legal thrillers • Occupation — Novelist, lawyer • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Born — 12 April 1949 • Education — Amherst College (BA) Stanford University Harvard University (JD)

Scott Frederick Turow was born on April 12, 1949, in Chicago to a family of Belarusian Jewish descent. His father was a medical doctor. Turow credits his mother, Rita, as having served as his "beacon" and having shaped him with her "love, support, and boundless faith in me." In contrast, his father wanted him to become a doctor. After Presumed Innocent became successful, his father told him, "I still think you could have gone to medical school." Turow was first raised in the neighborhood of West Rogers Park on Chicago's North Side before moving with his family to the suburb of Winnetka at age 13. He attended New Trier High School in Winnetka and graduated from Amherst College in 1970 as a brother of the Alpha Delta Phi Literary Society. He received an Edith Mirrielees Fellowship to Stanford University's Creative Writing Center, which he attended from 1970 to 1972. In 1977, Turow wrote One L, a book about his first year at law school. He became a novelist and wrote the legal thrillers Presumed Innocent (1987), The Burden of Proof (1990), Pleading Guilty (1993), and Personal Injuries. In 1990, Turow was featured on the June 11 cover of Time, which described him as "the Bard of the Litigious Age". In 1995, Canadian author Derek Lundy published a biography of Turow, entitled Scott Turow: Meeting the Enemy (ECW Press, 1995). • Illustration — Turow in 2008 Turow was elected the President of the Authors Guild in 2010. As the President of the Authors Guild, he has been criticized for his copyright maximalist and anti-ebook stance. Turow has often responded that he is not against e-books, and has shared that he does the majority of his own reading electronically. According to Turow, he is interested in protecting writing as a livelihood. From 1997 to 1998, Turow was a member of the U.S. Senate Nominations Commission for the Northern District of Illinois, which recommends federal judicial appointments. In 2011, Turow met with Harvard Law School professor, Lawrence Lessig, to discuss political reform, including a possible Second Constitutional Convention of the United States. According to one source, Turow saw risks with having such a convention, but he believed that it may be the "only alternative", given his stance that campaign money can undermine the one man, one vote principle of democracy.

• Presumed Innocent, 1987 • The Burden of Proof, 1990 • Pleading Guilty, 1993 • The Laws of Our Fathers, 1996 • Personal Injuries, 1999 • Reversible Errors, 2002 • Ordinary Heroes, 2005 • Limitations, 2006 • Innocent, 2010 • Identical, 2013 • Testimony, 2017 • The Last Trial, 2020 • Suspect, 2022 • Presumed Guilty, 2025

• Guilty As Charged, 1996 (as editor) • The Best American Mystery Stories, 2006 (as editor)

• One L, 1977 • Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty, 2003 • Hard Listening, co-authored in July 2013, an interactive ebook about his participation in a writer/musician band, the Rock Bottom Remainders. Published by Coliloquy, LLC.

• Presumed Innocent, 1990 • The Burden of Proof, 1992 • Reversible Errors, 2004 • Innocent, 2011 • Presumed Innocent, 2024

Scott Turow is recorded as lawyer, novelist and writer.