Satirist and novelist Patrick James "P. J." O'Rourke was born in 1947 in Toledo, Ohio. He graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and attended Johns Hopkins University where he received his M.A. in English. He worked for the magazine National Lampoon, eventually becoming editor-in-chief. He wrote articles such as "Foreigners Around the World". He received a writing credit for National Lampoon's Lemmings which helped launch the careers of John Belushi and Chevy Chase. In 1981, he left the magazine to write screenplays (including Rodney Dangerfield's Easy Money). O'Rourke contributes regularly to such magazines as Playboy, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The American Spectator, The New Republic, and Rolling Stone (for which he is Foreign Affairs Desk Chief). Patrick O'Rourke has published 15 books including three New York Times bestsellers. His bestselling novels include Parliament of Whores, Give War a Chance, and All the Troubles in the World.
