James Burkhart Gilbert

James Gilbert was born in Chicago and moved with his parents to Flossmoor, Illinois, a small golfing suburb located on the main southern commuter rail into the city. He attended Carleton College and then the University of Wisconsin, earning a doctoral degree in American Intellectual and Cultural History. After graduation, he was hired by the University of Maryland, just outside Washington, DC, where he was appointed Distinguished University Professor in 1999. Over the course of his career, he published eleven history texts, one of them (PERFECT CITIES) was named a NEW YORK TIMES notable book of the year in 1986. Throughout his career, he has often succumbed to a love of travel made possible by teaching at a variety of universities in Europe and Australia. While American history was his profession, literature has always been his passion, and since retiring, he has written and published seven novels (three of them mysteries featuring the sleuth, Amanda Pennyworth) two books of short stories, a sixth legal thriller set in Chicago, and now a new novel describing an intense family drama. He is also a (very) amateur cellist and pianist.