James Frey Biography and latest books by James Frey

James Christopher Frey was born September 12, 1969 in Ohio, Cleveland. His novel A Million Little Pieces, My Friend Leonard and Bright Shiny Morning became bestsellers in 2005 till the early 2006. However, later on his book A Million Little Pieces, which he wrote as a memoir of his life, was found out to be not exactly what he had gone through in his life.

James Frey finished his college from Denison University and the Art Institute of Chicago. After finishing his studies he moved to Los Angeles, California and worked as a screenwriter, director and a producer. He worked as a screenwriter for the movie Kissing a Fool and Sugar: The Fall of the West, which he also directed.

In the year 1996 he worked on his first novel, A Million Little Pieces as a fictional novel but it was turned down by approximately 17 publishing houses. Later he rewrote it as a memoir of his life while he was still a drug addict and how he redeemed himself. It was published in 2003 by a publishing house called Doubleday. It was picked as the favorite book of the year by the editors of Amazon.com. It was also praised hugely by The New Yorker.

In the year 2005, Frey’s book A Million Little Pieces sold more than two million copies overnight after it was selected by Oprah Winfrey for her monthly book club. Due to the hype received by this book The Smoking Gun started scrutinizing the facts about this book. In the year 2006, it was reported by The Smoking Gun that Frey had fabricated much of the facts in the book including his criminal records and his experiences at the rehabilitation center. At first Frey refuted the statement made by The Smoking Gun and went to Larry King Live on CNN with his mother and defended his work. But as the matter went from bad to worse and accusations piled up, he had to make a forced televised apology in The Oprah Winfrey Show. During the show he admitted that some of the accusations made against him were true, he also admitted to altering the facts so as to capture the suspense of the reader.

The aftermath of the scandal led to Frey being dropped by his literary agent, Kassie Evashevski and lost a seven-figure deal for two books. James Frey and his publisher Random House reached a legal settlement wherein the reader would be offered a refund if they felt they were cheated. The books which were printed later on had a note to the reader from Frey, apologizing for fabricating some parts of the book.

In the year 2007, he signed a deal with Harper Collins to release three of his novels. One of them was Bright Shiny Morning which was published on May 31, 2008. The book appeared on the New York Times bestseller though it received mixed reviews from critics. The Los Angeles Times gave a thumbs down for the book. However, on the August 2, 2008 edition of the Guardian UK, it praised Frey for his excellent writing in the book and called him the literary comeback of the decade.

Submitted by: Precious Pheirim