Ransom Riggs

Ransom Riggs (2012)

Ransom Riggs (born 1979 in Maryland ) is an American author , journalist , filmmaker and photographer .

life and career

Ransom Riggs was born in Maryland in 1979. He grew up in Englewood , Florida . In his youth he played in various bands and made films with his friends.

After graduating from high school, he studied English literature at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. This was followed by a degree in film studies at the University of Southern California .

After graduating, he tried unsuccessfully to sell his own scripts. At the same time he made commercials and worked as a journalist and photographer. In 2009 his first book, The Sherlock Holmes Handbook: The Methods and Mysteries of the World's Greatest Detective, was published.

Riggs is a passionate collector of old photos and has a collection of several thousand prints. After showing the photos to an editor with whom he had worked on his Sherlock Holmes book, the latter suggested that he write a novel, the plot of which is linked to some of these old photos.

The fantasy novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children born from this idea was published by Quirk Books in 2011 and became a bestseller. The German translation of the book was published in 2013 under the title The Island of Special Children by Knaur Taschenbücher . Shortly after the book was published, there was a bidding competition for the film rights. The contract was finally awarded to 20th Century Fox , who had the book by Tim Burton filmed in 2015 with Asa Butterfield in the lead role. The film The Island of Special Children was released in US cinemas at the end of September 2016.

In 2014, the second part of the series, Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Children, followed. The German translation The City of Special Children was also published by Knaur Taschenbücher in 2015. In the same year Riggs published the third part of the series, Library of Souls: The Third Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children , which appeared in November 2016 under the German title Die Bibliothek der Special Kinder . The fourth part of the series, A Map of Days: The Fourth Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children , published in 2018 , appeared in Germany a year later under the title The Atlas of Special Children .

Riggs lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife, the writer Tahereh Mafi .

Awards

• 2011 LovelyBooks Readers Award in the Best Cover / Cover category for The Island of Special Children

Works

• The Sherlock Holmes Handbook: The Methods and Mysteries of the World's Greatest Detective. Quirk Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-59474-429-7 .
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Quirk Books, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59474-513-3 .
  • dt. The island of special children. Knaur, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-42651-057-5 .
• Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past. Harper Collins, 2012, ISBN 978-0-06-209949-5 .
• Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Children. Quirk Books, 2014, ISBN 978-1-59474-612-3 .
  • dt. The city of special children. Knaur, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-42665-358-6 .
• Library of Souls: The Third Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children. Quirk Books, 2015, ISBN 978-1-59474-840-0 .
  • dt. The library for special children. Knaur, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-426-52027-7 .
• Tales of the Peculiar. Dutton Books, 2016, ISBN 978-0-399-53853-7 .
  • The legends of special children. Knaur, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-426-22656-8 .
• A Map of Days: The Fourth Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children. Dutton Books, 2018, ISBN 978-0-735-23214-3 .
  • The special children's atlas. Knaur, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-426-22657-5 .

Filmography (selection)

• 2004: VeTool (short film, camera)
• 2006: Spaceboy (short film, director, screenplay)
• 2006: Skinny Leg Blues (short film, director, editor)
• 2006: Portable Living Room (short film, director, screenplay)
• 2006: Timing (short film, production, camera, editing)
• 2011: The Accidental Sea (short film, director, screenplay, camera)
• 2015: Ghost Shark 2: Urban Jaws (Second Unit Camera)

Web links

Commons : Ransom Riggs  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Ransom Riggs
• Literature by and about Ransom Riggs in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ransom Riggs in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
• Ransom Riggs in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Heated auction begins by studios for unpublished book at reuters.com, accessed on February 15, 2016
2. ↑ Freak chic: The “universal creepiness” of Ransom Riggs' new novel at news.nationalpost.com, accessed February 15, 2016
3. ↑ Best Sellers - Children's Chapter Books at nytimes.com, accessed February 15, 2016
4. ↑ ^{a b} Ransom Riggs at droemer-knaur.de, accessed on February 15, 2016