Pope Brock
Pope Brock, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, has worked as a freelance journalist for more than 25 years, covering sumo wrestling, tomb-robbing, cheating scandals, robot races, Katharine Hepburn, Romanian adoptions and a host of other subjects for GQ, Esquire, Rolling Stone, People, the London Sunday Times Magazine and other publications. He was the first reporter to interview Captain Joseph Hazelwood after the Exxon Valdez disaster. Most recently he has published articles on a 76-year-old man who believes he is the Lindbergh baby and a town in the Canadian Arctic that is excited about global warming.
He is the author of two books. The first, Indiana Gothic (Doubleday/Nan Talese) is about the murder of his great-grandfather in 1908. The New York Times called it “as elegantly wrought as the finest of fiction.” The London Independent described it as “a brilliant fusion of In Cold Blood and The Bridges of Madison County,” which Mr. Brock insists is a compliment.
His most recent book is Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him and the Age of Flimflam (Crown). During the month of February 2008 it was the most enthusiastically reviewed book in the United States, hailed by the New York Times (“Told with uproarious brio….heavenly”) and a score of other major publications. Mr. Brock admits this reception owes much to his once-in-a-lifetime central character, the most successful quack in American history. Dr. John Brinkley first became renowned for transplanting goat testicles into impotent men as a virility booster. He went on to build a vast, bogus and often lethal medical practice during the 1920s and 30s, amassing great wealth while making brilliant innovations in advertising, broadcasting, political campaigning and country music. Mr. Brock feels lucky indeed to have stumbled on his story.
The author lives north of New York City, a single dad raising 10-year-old twin daughters, on whom he dotes. If anyone has advice on how to weather the years to come, he would love to hear it.Pope Brock, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, has worked as a freelance journalist for more than 25 years, covering sumo wrestling, tomb-robbing, cheating scandals, robot races, Katharine Hepburn, Romanian adoptions and a host of other subjects for GQ, Esquire, Rolling Stone, People, the London Sunday Times Magazine and other publications. He was the first reporter to interview Captain Joseph Hazelwood after the Exxon Valdez disaster. Most recently he has published articles on a 76-year-old man who believes he is the Lindbergh baby and a town in the Canadian Arctic that is excited about global warming.
He is the author of two books. The first, Indiana Gothic (Doubleday/Nan Talese) is about the murder of his great-grandfather in 1908. The New York Times called it “as elegantly wrought as the finest of fiction.” The London Independent described it as “a brilliant fusion of In Cold Blood and The Bridges of Madison County,” which Mr. Brock insists is a compliment.
His most recent book is Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him and the Age of Flimflam (Crown). During the month of February 2008 it was the most enthusiastically reviewed book in the United States, hailed by the New York Times (“Told with uproarious brio….heavenly”) and a score of other major publications. Mr. Brock admits this reception owes much to his once-in-a-lifetime central character, the most successful quack in American history. Dr. John Brinkley first became renowned for transplanting goat testicles into impotent men as a virility booster. He went on to build a vast, bogus and often lethal medical practice during the 1920s and 30s, amassing great wealth while making brilliant innovations in advertising, broadcasting, political campaigning and country music. Mr. Brock feels lucky indeed to have stumbled on his story.
The author lives north of New York City, a single dad raising 10-year-old twin daughters, on whom he dotes. If anyone has advice on how to weather the years to come, he would love to hear it.