Donna Tartt is an American writer. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Outstanding Achievements in Literature and Journalism, National Circle of Book Critics Award, Orange Literary Award, and Malaparte Italian Literary Award.
The creative biography of Tartt began in the mid-1980s of the last century. During all this time, three novels and several short stories, audio books, and documentary essays were published. She does not chase the number of written works. For Donna, the creative process is important. She believes that it is better to write one outstanding work that goes down in history than hundreds of books that many will never remember.
Facts from the biography
Donna was born in the winter of 1963 in the United States. Her father worked as a gas tanker, and her mother as a secretary in the office. Donna has a younger sister, Taylor.
In childhood, the girl was not a very sociable child. She was often ill, so she mostly sat at home, surrounded by many relatives who were involved in her upbringing.
Having learned to read and write early, Donna already at the age of four began keeping a diary, writing down her observations there. At the age of five, the girl began to write the first poems, and then switched to small stories.
Going to school, Donna began to miss classes often due to illness. Soon, it was decided to transfer her to home schooling. She practically had no friends, so most of the time she spent at home reading books and writing poems or stories. When she was thirteen, her first small work was published in the journal Literary Review.
In the early 1980s, Tartt entered the University of Mississippi. The teachers noticed her literary talent in the first year. The girl coped brilliantly with any literary texts, and one of the professors even called her works brilliant.
After the first year, Tartt was advised to transfer to another educational institution, where there will be more opportunities to realize his literary talent. She did so. And she soon became a student of the philological faculty of Vermont College, choosing the specialty of classical literature.
Creative career
Her first work - the novel "Secret History" - Donna began to write in her student years. After graduation, one of his friends introduced Donna to a well-known literary agent, whose collaboration continued for more than twenty years.
Thanks to the skillful work of the agent, after a few years a large publishing house bought the work of a young writer for four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For the publication of the novel abroad, another five hundred thousand dollars were offered. The circulation of the book in the United States amounted to seventy-five thousand copies.
The second novel was published in 2002. It was called "Little Friend." Like Tartt's first work, the book instantly became a bestseller. In addition, the novel was honored by WH Smith.
The third novel "Goldfinch" was published in 2013. The plot was based on the story of a teenager who, together with his mother, was at the epicenter of the terrorist attack in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A dying museum clerk asks the boy to save a very rare picture. He really makes a picture, but, in fact, steals it, leaving it to himself. After many years, he can not get rid of guilt, but at the same time, the thirst for power and money does not allow him to confess to the crime.
In 2014, Tartt was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the novel The Goldfinch, as well as a number of other literary prizes.
In the same year, Warner Bros. film companies and RatPac Entertainment began to negotiate the acquisition of rights to the film adaptation of the novel. In 2017, Amazon joined the negotiations, promising to pay a third of the filming budget.
Work on the film began in 2018. It should be released in 2019. Tartt received a $ 3 million fee.
