Walter Tevis

Walter Tevis grew up in San Francisco as the younger of two children. Growing up, Tevis was a class-C chess player who learned how to play at age 7. At 10 years old, Tevis developed a heart condition, so his parents placed him in the Stanford Children’s Convalescent home, and he was given heavy barbiturates for a year. While at the home, Tevis’s family moved to Kentucky, and he rejoined them at the end of the year at age 11. Near the end of World War II, 17-year-old Tevis served in the war as a Navy carpenter’s mate. After his discharge, he graduated high school in 1945 and entered the University of Kentucky, earning a B.A. and then an M.A. in English literature. He received an M.F.A. in creative writing in 1960 from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. After graduation, Tevis wrote for the Kentucky Highway Department and taught classes in small-town high schools and colleges in Kentucky while publishing books and short stories, including The Hustler (1959), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1963), and Mockingbird (1980). Tevis married Jamie Griggs in 1957; they remained together for 20 years and had two children before divorcing. Tevis was a frequent smoker, gambler, and alcoholic throughout his life, which became part of the inspiration for The Queen’s Gambit. Tevis spent his final years in New York City as a full-time writer and married Eleanora Walker in 1983. Tevis died of lung cancer in 1984.