Sue Grafton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and attended the University of Louisville her freshman year and Western State Teachers College (now Western Kentucky University) for the next two years before graduating from the University of Louisville in 1961 with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature.
Grafton also minored in humanities and fine arts.
She began writing her first novel at 18 years old and completed it at 22.
Following that, she wrote six more books, but only found publishing success with two of the seven novels.
Disheartened by the outcome, Grafton turned to writing screenplays for television movies.
After several years she decided to return to fictional writing and developed the Alphabet series.
The series features the life of Kinsey Millhone, a private investigator.
Many of Grafton’s readers believe that Millhone is a reflection of herself, but Grafton dispels the myth on her personal website.
She says, unlike her fictional character, she enjoys gardens, good cuisine and cats.
Grafton is married to Steve Humphrey and has three children and four grandchildren.
She is published in 28 countries and in 26 languages.
Grafton continues to write the final few books left in the Kinsey Millhone series.
SPOTLIGHT
STAY in touch
with azpbs.org!
Subscribe to Arizona PBS Newsletters:
