John Briggs writes funny books, from political satires to picture books and jokes. Anything to get a laugh -- except when he's writing middle-grade biographies about people he finds fascinating. John is a former stand-up comic and nationally syndicated TV critic who has written for some of the country's best-known papers. A native of Philadelphia, John now lives in upstate New York where he enjoys reading, writing, baseball, and talking history with his teenage son and single-digit daughters.