Jonathan Franzen

Born in a town near Chicago and raised just outside of St. Louis in a well-to-do area, Franzen had childhood steeped in 1960s and '70s suburbia. After focusing on his German studies while in college, he began his writing career, eventually seeing his debut novel, The Twenty-Seventh City, published in 1988. A high-minded political thriller, the book wasn't a huge hit, but it established Franzen as an author to watch. His next book, Strong Motion, which incorporated the subjects of earthquakes and capitalism, wasn't particularly well received, and he went back to the drawing board, with no subsequent novel for nearly 10 years. Franzen's patience clearly paid off, however, when The Corrections, a decades-spawning look at one Midwestern family's dysfunction, became a huge hit in 2001. This was in part due to the publicity generated when he started a dispute with Oprah Winfrey after making comments that were resentful of the novel's inclusion in her hugely popular book club. Releasing non-fiction collections in the years thereafter, he lent his voice to a 2006 literature-themed episode of "The Simpsons" (Fox, 1989-) and returned prominently in 2010 with Freedom, which snowballed into a literary event that even led to his photo on the cover of Time. That year he finally appeared on Winfrey's show, ending the perceived feud between the two. He also continued to stir up controversy by making various statements about the negative effects of the Internet and social media, comments that angered some and were championed by others. After working with lauded director/screenwriter Noah Baumbach on a proposed television version of The Corrections, the project was not picked up by HBO, but diehard fans held out hope that another Franzen screen adaptation would develop.