EDWARD HUMES

In 1989, I began writing nonfiction books. And, suddenly, instead of days or hours for each story, I had months and years to immerse myself in the inner workings of the places, characters and events I seek to understand and write about. I had found the greatest job I can imagine — and some very big obligations I try never to forget: to those who welcome me into their lives and trust me with their stories, and to those who give up their hard-earned money and even more valuable time to read my work. I cannot do what I do without them; their generosity is both amazing and humbling.

In my books, I try to take readers inside worlds most don’t get to visit or see close up on their own. My first stories were about crime — real-life murder mysteries— and I still enjoy reading and writing true crime. But in my last several books, I found myself pursuing broader narratives about our justice system, our juvenile courts and the problem of wrongful convictions. In my last book, I explored a surprisingly humane part of the medical world — life and hope inside a top neonatal intensive care unit, or Baby ER. And now I’m proud to have School of Dreams published, a journey inside new terrain as well, the always vital and frequently astonishing world of our education system. I spent a year immersed within California’s top public high school, a place of high achievement and high stress, where a culture of high expectations has attracted families from around the world to its modest campus, but where the pressure to succeed can take a heavy toll.

Awards

A Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for specialized reporting for my coverage of the military. The stories that year included an investigation of decades of fatal helicopter crashes linked to faulty night-vision devices the Pentagon knew were unsuitable for flight; dispatches from Panama during the final days of General Manuel Noriega; an examination of the Navy’s secret research program on dolphins and whales; and the story of the unjust execution of an Army private during World War II, and his nephew’s efforts fifty years later to clear his name. No Matter How Loud I Shout was named best research nonfiction book in 1996 by Pen Center USA, and best book that same year by the Investigative Reporters & Editors organization.

Books

Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion and the Battle for America's Soul A dramatic story of faith, science, and courage unlike any since the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. Monkey Girl takes you to the front lines of America’s war on evolution, the epic court case on teaching "intelligent design" it spawned, and the national struggle over what we believe and should teach our children -- about our origins.

Over Here: Hoe the G.I. Bill Transofrmed the American Dream The post-World War II G.I. Bill revolutionized higher education, created suburbia, brought us the scientists, engineers, doctors, artists and teachers who built most of what is good in America today. Over Here: How the G.I. Bill Transformed the American Dream, recounts this sometimes surprising history and its lasting legacy. Consider it a book not of war stories, but of after-the-war stories, and in them you’ll meet film and theater director Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde, The Miracle Worker, the Nixon-Kennedy debates), Nobelist Leon Lederman (helped invent modern particle physics), civil rights crusader Monte Posey, George McGovern, Bob Dole, Josette Dermody Wingo and many others.

School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School A poignant, surprising story of what life is really like for today’s high-achieving, highly pressured high school students. The author takes us inside the over-stressed, over-tested world of California’s top-ranked public school, finding much to admire but also some troubling, unintended consequences to building the school of our dreams.

Baby ER: The Heroic Doctors and Nurses Who Perform Medicine’s Tiniest Miracles The author journeys inside one of the nation’s top neonatal units, a touching and important story of life on medicine’s most cutting edge. Answers questions every expectant parent should be asking of their hospitals.

No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court Step inside the secret world of the country’s largest juvenile court, where nothing — not the kids, not the professionals, not the reasons the system is failing — is what you expect.

Mississippi Mud: A True Story from the Deep South “With surgical brilliance, Edward Humes peels back the glittering skin of the Deep South’s sin belt and exposes a shadow society of almost unspeakable corruption,” says novelist Jonathan Kellerman. “One of the most suspenseful and chilling crime books I’ve ever read.” A true crime best seller.

Mean Justice: A Town’s Terror, a Prosecutor’s Power, a Betrayal of Innocence The unintended casualty in our war on crime is innocence, in this chilling story of wrongful convictions and prosecutorial overkill in the California heartland.