The Boo (28 page)

In the 1980s, Conroy moved from South Carolina to Atlanta, and then to Rome, Italy, after marrying his second wife, Lenore. While living in Rome, he wrote
The Prince of Tides
(1986), about a former football player’s tragic upbringing and its effect on his family. The novel, which has sold more than five million copies worldwide, drove a wedge between Conroy and his sister, Carol, on whom many sections of the novel were based. In 1991, the book was made into a major motion picture starring Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte that was nominated for seven Academy Awards. After publishing his fourth novel,
Beach Music
, in 1997, Conroy married his third wife, Cassandra King, who is the author of four novels. Since their marriage, he has written the memoir
My Losing Season
(2002),
The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life
(2004) with Suzanne Williamson Pollak,
South of Broad
(2009), and the collection of essays
My Life in Books
(2010).

Conroy was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2004 and won the Outstanding Author Award from the Southeast Library Association in 2006. He currently lives on Fripp Island, South Carolina.

The wedding photo of Don and Peg Conroy (nËe Peek), taken in 1945. Pat was born later that year, the first of seven children.

Conroy feeding birds with his mother, Peg, in San Juan Capistrano, California, in 1948. He would later credit her with inspiring his love of language.

Pat, Peg, and Pat’s younger sister Carol, around 1950.
The Prince of Tides
featured a character, the poet Savannah Wingo, which was based on Carol.

Conroy’s 1957 school picture, taken when he was about twelve years old. Because his father was in the military, Conroy changed schools often as a child.

In 1963, Conroy captained the basketball team as a senior at Beaufort High School in Beaufort, South Carolina. Conroy’s high school English teacher, Eugene Norris, introduced him to the author Thomas Wolfe, who would later serve as a literary inspiration for Conroy.

Conroy’s 1964 semester report card from the Citadel. His only A for the semester was in comparative literature—a grade that foreshadowed his considerable skill as an author.

Conroy’s school picture from 1967 while studying at the Citadel. In
The Lords of Discipline
he wrote candidly about the authoritarianism of military school.

The Conroy family in the summer of 1969. Front row: Peg, Tim, Tom, Donald. Back row: Jim, Kathy, Pat, Carol Ann, Mike.

The schoolhouse on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, where Pat taught for a year, an experience that inspired his book
The Water Is Wide
.

Conroy’s mother, Peg, and the actor Jon Voight on the set of
Conrack
, the 1974 feature film adapted from
The Water Is Wide
. The movie opened to wide critical acclaim.

Conroy and his first wife, Barbara, delivering copies of
The Water Is Wide
to children on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, in the mid- to late-1970s. The book was based on Conroy’s experience teaching elementary school students on the island for a year after graduating from college.