Steven Pressfield is an American author of historical fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays. His debut novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, became the 2000 sports film directed by Robert Redford and starring Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron.
Steven Pressfield was born to a Navy father and mother in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He graduated from Duke University in 1965. Then, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as an infantryman.
"In January of 1966, when I was on the bus leaving Parris Island as a freshly minted Marine, I looked back and thought there was at least one good thing about this departure. "No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again," Steven said.
Pressfield worked 21 different jobs in eleven states, before becoming a full-time writer. He taught school, drove tractor-trailers, worked in advertising and as a screenwriter in Hollywood, etc.
His struggle to exist as an author, including a period, when he was homeless and living in the back of his car, is detailed in his 2002 book, The War of Art.
Before publishing his first original works of fiction, Pressfield wrote several Hollywood screenplays, including King Kong Lives (1986), Above the Law (1988), and others.
As Steven said, he wrote for 27 years before his first book, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was published in 1995.
His second novel, Gates of Fire (1998), is about the Spartans and the battle at Thermopylae. It is taught at the U.S. Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, and the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico.
Over one million copies of Gates of Fire are sold worldwide.
Steven Pressfield lives in Los Angeles.
Photo credit: stevenpressfield.com
