Jeff Shaara
Photo by Laurie Lane

Jeff Shaara was born in 1952 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. He graduated from Florida State University in 1974, with a degree in Criminology. From age 16, he operated a rare coin business and continued in that business until he was 36. When his father, the Pulitzer-winning author Michael Shaara, died in 1988, Jeff Shaara sold his company and focused on managing his father’s estate. In 1993, during the production of the film Gettysburg, based on his father’s novel The Killer Angels, Shaara became friends with film director Ron Maxwell, who raised the issue of filming a prequel and sequel to the story of the decisive Civil War battle. After much soul-searching, Shaara decided to undertake the writing task himself. Two years later, he published Gods and Generals, the prequel to his father's novel, which quickly became a New York Times bestseller. In 1998, his sequel, The Last Full Measure, also became a bestseller. His next three novels were also critically acclaimed national bestsellers. Gone for Soldiers focused on the Mexican-American War, and Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause centered on the American Revolution. In 2003, the major motion picture Gods and Generals was released by Warner Brothers. Shaara lives in Montana and is now writing a novel set during World War I.

He raised his head just slightly and looked around him, saw a great field of black shapes. He began to move, slid along the hard ground, moved up alongside one of the shapes, said in a low, hoarse voice, “You, there. Are you wounded?” He waited, then reached out a hand, touched the blue cloth, prodded harder, poked the man’s stiff body, and he understood.

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