Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy was born on October 26, 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia, the eldest of seven children of Marine Corps fighter pilot Colonel Donald Conroy. Conroy attended The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina, graduating in 1967. After teaching disadvantaged African American children on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, he published the memoir 'The Water Is Wide' (1972), which exposed rural educational inequality and won him the National Endowment for the Arts Award.

In 1976, Conroy published 'The Great Santini', an unflinching, emotionally searing portrait of his tyrannical father; the 1979 film adaptation starring Robert Duvall earned two Academy Award nominations. In 1980, he followed with 'The Lords of Discipline', exposing harsh hazing rituals at a military academy. In 1986, Conroy published his magnum opus, 'The Prince of Tides', chronicling the troubled Wingo family of South Carolina. The novel spent nearly a year on the New York Times bestseller list, selling more than five million copies, and was adapted into a 1991 blockbuster film directed by Barbra Streisand and starring Nick Nolte, earning seven Academy Award nominations. In 1995, he published 'Beach Music', cementing his legacy as a master of Southern lyricism before passing away in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 2016.