author
Walter S. Tevis
1928–1984
Best known for writing The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and The Queen's Gambit, this American novelist had a gift for mixing sharp, lonely characters with worlds of obsession, talent, and risk. Several of his books became major films or screen adaptations, helping his stories reach far beyond the page.
1 Audiobook
The Big Bounce
by Walter S. Tevis
About the author
Born in San Francisco in 1928 and raised largely in Kentucky, he served in the Navy while still a teenager and later studied at the University of Kentucky, earning degrees in English. Before becoming widely known as a novelist, he taught in Kentucky schools and at the university level, experiences that fed the grounded, observant style of his fiction.
His breakout novel, The Hustler (1959), introduced the cool, pressured world that became one of his signatures. He went on to write a small but influential group of novels, including The Man Who Fell to Earth, Mockingbird, The Color of Money, and The Queen's Gambit. Again and again, his stories returned to outsiders, prodigies, and people struggling with addiction, discipline, or the cost of brilliance.
He died in New York in 1984, but his work has continued to find new readers. The renewed attention to The Queen's Gambit showed how modern his storytelling still feels: precise, emotional, and deeply interested in what drives people to keep playing even when the odds are against them.