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Jodi Picoult in Botswana
Born in 1966, Picoult grew up in the Long Island town of Nesconset, New York, knowing from a young age that she wanted to be a writer. The older of two children of a Wall Street analyst and a schoolteacher, she attended public school. She graduated with high honors from Princeton University, where she majored in English and creative writing, in 1987, and from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she earned a master's degree, in 1990. Before becoming a full-time writer, Picoult worked as a technical writer for a Wall Street brokerage firm, a copywriter at an advertising agency, a textbook editor, and an 8th grade English teacher who also directed school plays. New England has been her home for most of her adult life and frequently provides the backdrop for her fiction.
At Princeton, Picoult found a mentor in the travel and fiction writer Mary Morris, with whom she took several creative writing classes (she also studied with visiting professor Robert Stone). Two stories Picoult wrote as class assignments were bought by
Research is fundamental to Picoult's fiction, informing how she conceives and shapes her plots and develops her characters. Not only does she address the complexities of a range of topics, often medical, legal, or social -- eugenics, school violence, teen suicide, spousal abuse, the legal rights of minors, childhood cancer, gay rights, the death penalty, war criminals, vengeance, justice, faith, and the value of life have all featured in her work -- but she also delves into history, myth and lore, religions and cultures, jobs and vocations, to enrich her stories. In addition to spending countless hours reading and interviewing, Picoult has lived with an Amish family, gone ghost hunting, joined police officers on patrol, worked with graphic artists, been fingerprinted, learned to bake bread, and more. But what is perhaps most striking about Picoult's fiction is the intensity of her characters and the determination with which they wrestle with their situations and seek answers. Depicting their vivid inner lives, their deepest memories, and their often complex relationships with other characters, Picoult allows them both to expose their vulnerabilities and to tap unexpected strengths.
Picoult has contributed to anthologies edited by Neil Gaiman, the
Picoult's work has been praised by fellow novelists Stephen King, Ann Hood, Elizabeth George, and Jacquelyn Mitchard, and by publications as diverse as
Jodi Picoult and her husband, Tim van Leer, whom she met while at Princeton and married in 1989, have three grown children and live in Hanover, N.H.
The Picoult Papers document the author's work process, with extensive notes and correspondence concerning plot ideas, character development, and the intersection of fiction and realism. Her early career is represented by handwritten and typed pages and drafts from stories Picoult wrote as a college student, including two stories accepted by
Books that Picoult used for research are also held in SCUA. Picoult's own publications are represented by a comprehensive collection of American and foreign-language editions of her novels; her earliest published work, which appeared while she was still in college; the five Wonder Woman stories she wrote for DC Comics, and more.
The collection is open for research.
Acquired from Jodi Picoult, 2013.
Processed by Caroline J. White, 2014.
Published works by Jodi Picoult are separated, as are full-length works Picoult used in the course of her research.
The correspondence in this series is of a general nature and not connected to Picoult's work on individual novels, although some of it pertains to author events and publicity. It is arranged chronologically. Correspondents include editors, publicists, and other publishing colleagues, readers, and fellow writers including Chris Bohjalian and Picoult's mentor, Mary Morris. A few assorted, unidentified notes round out this series.
Organized by work according to first publication date, and comprising the greater part of the collection, this series includes a range of material related to Picoult's creative process: plotting and research notes, correspondence with her wide network of experts and friends, files of research materials on an array of topics, transcripts of interviews with her consultants, and drafts and partial drafts of her novels. Most of the correspondence is in the form of printed emails, often with notes written by hand on the page. Also here are drafts of stories Picoult wrote for college fiction-writing classes, including multiple drafts and editorial notes and correspondence, the report from her readers on her creative senior thesis, and the early published stories that started her career. Several of Picoult's novels are not represented here.
The works represented in this series by a small miscellany of material are those for which Picoult served as a co-creator or contributor. These include two musical plays for teenagers for which Picoult wrote or co-wrote the book and lyrics; the young adult novel
This series consists chiefly of articles and clippings -- book reviews, feature stories, and profiles of Picoult -- from a vast assortment of local, national, and international publications. There are also some promotional materials such as press kits, press releases, and marketing items for bookstores. A small amount of movie publicity material is also included, as are a few memorabilia. Most of this material is arranged chronologically, followed by the memorabilia, and then by a smattering of hardback and paperback book covers, mainly in proof versions, organized alphabetically by title.
Arranged chronologically, the photographs include publicity photographs from various stages of Picoult's career, including contact sheets from a photo shoot for the cover of her first novel; photographs taken during author appearances; and snapshots taken by Picoult herself in the course of her research. A few photographs are also found with correspondence in Series 1. Audiovisual material consists of materials connected to Picoult's research, most notably numerous microcassette recordings of interviews Picoult conducted (also represented in Series 2 by transcripts). There are also, on various formats, some interviews with Picoult. Finally, there are four scrapbooks, assembled by Picoult, containing material such as clippings, letters, and mementoes related to several of the author's early novels.