Robert goolrick author biography graphic organizer

American writer (1948–2022)

Robert Cooke Goolrick (August 4, 1948 – April 29, 2022) was an American writer whose first novel sold more than five million copies.^[2]

Biography

Robert Goolrick grew up in the 1950s in the small college town of Lexington, Virginia.

His mother was a homemaker and his father a college professor, and he had two siblings. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University. When Goolrick lost his job as an advertising creative director and copywriter, he turned to memoir writing.^[3]The End of the World As We Know It: Scenes from a Life highlighted "the excesses and failures of both the social underpinnings of the time and his parents' inevitable alcohol-fueled decline, culminating in a devastating portrayal of the sexual abuse he suffered as a child." He sought "something resembling peace" in his writing.^[4] After years living in New York City, Goolrick returned to Virginia.^[5] In 2015, he moved from