Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom was born to a middle class suburban American family, and was the middle child of three and attended Brandeis University. Though he initially dreamed of becoming a professional piano player, and in fact supported himself after college as a part-time piano player in New York, he soon became interested in journalism and began freelancing as a sports reporter. He eventually attended the Journalism School at Columbia University. After Columbia, he worked his way up in sports journalism, winning prestigious awards from the Associated Press in 1985, and eventually landed as the lead sports columnist at the Detroit Free Press. Albom also wrote a number of sports books, but his big success occurred in 1995 when he learned that a professor of his from Brandeis, Morrie Schwartz, was dying of ALS. Albom visited Schwartz multiple times in Boston, and wrote a book about the experience, Tuesdays with Morrie. The advance for the book allowed Albom to pay Schwartz’s medical bills, but what was expected to be a modest publishing run turned into a phenomenon, as Tuesdays with Morrie spent 205 weeks on the bestseller list. Albom followed up Tuesdays with Morrie six years later with the novel and smash success The Five People You Meet in Heaven in 2003. Since then, he has also written For One More Day (2006), Have a Little Faith (2009), and The Time Keeper (2012). His books are known for their inspirational themes, and have been featured on many news and talk shows. Albom is also an accomplished musician and songwriter. He lives in Detroit with his wife, Janine Sabino.