William McGuire "Bill" Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He dropped out of college in 1972 to go backpacking in Europe, went back the following year, and in England met the woman who was to become his wife. Except for returning a couple of times to the US, first to finish college and later for work projects, Bryson has spent most of his adult life in the UK. He worked first in journalism and then published his first book in 1985, shortly after which, he left journalism. He is best known for his travel writing like In a Sunburned Country, which the Readers Roundtable discussed back in 2006. He has also written several books like this month's selection, One Summer: America 1927, about history and several books of science, biography, and memoir. For one of his science books, A Really Short History of Nearly Everything, Bryson was awarded the 2005 President's Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry for advancing the cause of the chemical sciences. For a full list of all his books and awards, visit his Wiki page. The usual Wikipedia caveats apply, but if even half of it is true, he has still lived quite a life.
In the following YouTube video, Bill Bryson shares why he thinks the five months of 1927 that are the subject of One Summer are such a key turning point for the US.
One of Bryson's travel books that was a huge best-seller, and one which I have read was A Walk in the Woods, and it appears that the movie version of that book is just able to be released, starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. Check out the trailer.
