I was born on December 10, 1933, in Santa Monica, CA, and was raised on a small cattle ranch in southwest Colorado, near Durango.  I was thrown off of my first horse (a big palomino mare, actually) when I was four years old and still remember going over her ears and landing in a plowed field.  Thereafter I rode drag on the annual two-day cattle drives to and from our summer cattle range.  Until I was nine or ten, we had no electricity or running water and were, like most of our rancher neighbors, poor, although we children were pretty much unaware of being so; but our house was full of books, and I remember the times as happy ones.

   .   I rode horseback or walked two miles to the one-room Long Lane School for eight years.  There were eight rows of desks; from left to right they represented eight grades.  If you were slow in one subject, you could listen with your left ear to what the previous grade was being taught; if you were fast, you could listen with your right ear to what the class above you was being taught. One of the recess activities of the boys was throwing hunting knives at a wall of the stable where we kept our horses during school.

    Our school library was a closet with some old (early 1900's) books in it, including a Tarzan novel.  I had seen Tarzan movies, but had never guessed that there were Tarzan books, and over the next few years read 24 of them, thereby establishing myself as the reigning Tarzan expert of southwest Colorado.  In that same closet were two or three novels about The Campfire Girls, so I read those too and became a Campfire Girls expert.  About this time I started writing poetry and prose fiction, most of which, fortunately, has been lost. Later, in Durango High School, under the influence of a wonderful English teacher, Sharley Pike, who loved anyone who liked books and writing, I wrote more bad poetry and prose, now, thankfully, lost.

    In 1951 I went to Boston University with the intention of becoming a minister.  At BU I was an all-American fencer and eventually got a degree in Religion and Philosophy, but before graduating in 1957 I had become more interested in literature and writing than in philosophy and religion.  I studied poetry with Robert Lowell, who quickly persuaded me that I had no future in that field, and studied prose with Gerald Warner Brace, who encouraged me to write fiction.
    I was a terrible student and barely graduated because I really majored in fencing (All-American in 1955) and minored in bridge.  Still, I got my degree in 1957, largely, I've always thouoght, because Boston University just wanted to get rid of me.

    I was invited to join the Olympic fencing squad, but a knee injury and a total lack of money prevented me from accepting.

        In 1962, I got an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, where Vance Bourjailly was my advisor.

        From 1962 until 1965 I taught English and Journalism at Endicott Jr. College in Beverly, MA. In the spring of 1965 I read a freshman theme aloud in class to illustrate some point.  The theme included either the word "damn" or "hell" (I forget which) and I was summarily fired by the dean, who said, "You're too creative for us, Mr. Craig."   In the fall of 1965 I joined the faculty at Wheelock College in Boston, where I taught until the spring of 1999, when I retired as  Professor Emeritus of English and became a full-time writer.

        In the fall of 2004 I accepted an invitation to house my papers and other archival materials in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.  I had over 20 cartons of material because I’d been saving almost everything pertaining to my writing since the 1950’s when I decided to keep a record of my efforts to become a novelist.  I was flattered by the invitation to house my material in the Gotlieb Archives, but also very aware of the ironic contrast between my many boxes of paper and the single envelope that could contain all of what is known about Shakespeare!

   I wrote my first novel (GATE OF IVORY, GATE OF HORN) during my noon lunch breaks in the back room of Al's Package Store in Edgartown, where I worked summers.  It  was published in 1969, when I was 35.  My second (A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE) was published in 1989, when I was 55. During the 20 years between appearances in print I wrote and submitted novels that no one wanted to publish.  Since 1989, Scribner has published a series of of my mystery novels, all of which are set on Martha's Vineyard.  Avon has published the paperback editions of these books.  VINEYARD PREY, the 16th book in the series, was published in June, 2005, and the 17th book in the series, DEAD IN VINEYARD SAND, will be published in June, 2006.  Scribner also published  FIRST LIGHT, a novel I co-wrote with William G. Tapply, author of the Brady Coyne mysteries, in January, 2002, and published SECOND SIGHT, another Brady Coyne/JW Jackson mystery, in January 2005.  Justin, Charles & Co published the paperback editions of FIRST LIGHT and SECOND SIGHT.
    My wife, Shirley, and I have written a cookbook based on the recipes in my mystery series.  It's called DELISH: THE J.W.JACKSON RECIPES and was published in Septmber 2006.      The 18th book in my MV mystery series, VINEYARD STALKER, will be out in June, 2007 and Bill Tapply and I have written THIRD STRIKE, which should be out in the next few months.  II am now writing the 19th book in  the MV mystery series.  If I actually finish it, it will be published in June, 2008.  It's working title is THE ADVENTURER.

    My wife and I  live in Edgartown, on Martha's Vineyard, where we sail, surf cast for bluefish, cook, sing in the Island Community Chorus, do gardening, go shell fishing, lie on the beach, and engage in other island activities.  Most mornings, I write. We keep our beer in its own refrigerator and our vodka in the freezer..

    When we can afford it, we travel, particularly to sites of ancient civilizations.  So far, we've been in 49 states and 39 countries. Most recently we spent three weeks in Italy, where we had a wonderful time during which we visited the ruins of Pompei and Herculaneum.  Our next trip will be a 3-week visit to Turkey.

    Shirley and I have been married since 1957 (to each other), and have two children (Kimberlie and James) and five grandchildren.
 

PUBLICATIONS

Books:

                GATE OF IVORY, GATE OF HORN (Doubleday, 1969)
                A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE (Scribner, 1989; Avon, 1990: re-issued by Avon, 2003)
                THE WOMAN WHO WALKED INTO THE SEA (Scribner, 1991; Avon 1992; re-issued by Avon under the title DEATH IN VINEYARD WATERS, 2003)
                THE DOUBLE MINDED MEN (Scribner, 1992; Avon 1993; re-issued by Avon under the title VINEYARD DECEIT, 2003)
                CLIFF HANGER (Scribner, 1993; Avon, 1994; reissued by Avon under the title VINEYARD FEAR, in 2004)
                OFF SEASON (Scribner, 1994; Avon, 1995)
                A CASE OF VINEYARD POISON (Scribner, 1995; Avon 1996)
                DEATH ON A VINEYARD BEACH (Scribner, 1996; Avon 1997)
                A DEADLY VINEYARD HOLIDAY (Scribner, 1997; Avon, 1998)
                A SHOOT ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD (Scribner, 1998; Avon, 1999)
               A FATAL VINEYARD SEASON (Scribner, 1999; Avon, 2000)
                VINEYARD BLUES (Scribner, 2000; Avon, 2001)
                VINEYARD SHADOWS (Scribner, 2001; Avon, 2002)
                FIRST LIGHT, co-written with William G. Tapply (Scribner, 2002; Justin, Charles & Co, 2005)
                VINEYARD ENIGMA (SCRIBNER, 2002; Avon, 2003)
                A VINEYARD KILLING (Scribner, 2003; Avon, 2004)
                MURDER AT A VINEYARD MANSION  (Scribner, 2004; Avon 2005)
                SECOND SIGHT, co-written with William G. Tapply (Scribner, 2005)
                VINEYARD PREY (Scribner, 2005; Avon, 2006)
                 DEAD IN VINEYARD SAND (Scribner, 2006)
                 DELISH: THE J.W. JACKSON RECIPES, co-written with Shirley Prada Craig (Vineyard Stories, 2006)

             GATE OF IVORY, GATE OF HORN was also published in England, and CLIFF HANGER was also published in Czechoslovakia. FIRST LIGHT, OFF SEASON, A DEADLY VINEYARD HOLIDAY, A SHOOT ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD, A FATAL VINEYARD SEASON, VINEYARD BLUES, VINEYARD SHADOWS,  VINEYARD ENIGMA,  A VINEYARD KILLING, MURDER AT A VINEYARD MANSION  and VINEYARD PREY were also published in large print editions.  The last seven of these books were Alternative Selections of the Mystery Guild.  THE WOMAN WHO WALKED INTO THE SEA, A SHOOT ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD, VINEYARD BLUES, VINEYARD ENIGMA, A VINEYARD KILLING,  MURDER AT A VINEYARD MANSION, and VINEYARD PREY are available on tape.  A SHOOT ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD was nominated for The Shamus Award.  A VINEYARD KILLING was the July, 2003 selection of the book club on Good Morning America.

   Other Writings:

    In the 1960's I did some feature writing for Vineyard and Cape Cod newspapers; Later I wrote two monographs about incidents during the frontier period of Southwest Colorado ("The Cox-Truby Feud" and "The Death of Ike Stockton") which are now in the archives of The Center For Southwestern Studies at Ft. Lewis College in Durango, CO, and in The Salmon Ruins library in Farmington, NM.  "The Cox-Truby Feud" was  published in booklet form in 2002 by the San Juan County Historical Society, in New Mexico.

    Since 1991, essays I've written have appeared in ON THE VINEYARD II and ON THE VINEYARD III (Simon Press), FISHING THE VINEYARD (Compass Press), ELEMENTS OF MYSTERY FICTION,  Martha's Vineyard Magazine, The Writer, AZ..MURDER GOES ARTFUL, "South Road,",  the Mystery Readers Journal (with Bill Tapply,) and in the souvenir booklet for the 57th (2002) Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.  My recipes have appeared in a number of cookbooks, including AS YOU LIKE IT, WORDS TO EAT BY, and A TASTE OF MURDER.  My short story '"Sweat" appeared in the spring 2004 edition of Crimestalkers Casebook.
 
   In response to a surprising number of requests from my readers, my wife and I have written DELISH, a cookbook featuring the recipes of J.W. Jackon, which will be out in October, 2006.

  In response to a request from my son, I've started writing an autobiography called "Legacy."

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

    Among other activities related to writing, I've served on the Board of Directors for the New England Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, and have chaired or been a member of panels at international conferences of mystery writers in Omaha, St. Paul, Scottsdale, Monterey, Washington DC, Albuquerque, Denver, and Nottingham, England.

    I've taught workshops on mystery writing on Cape Cod and in Arizona, and have been guest lecturer on fiction writing at Arizona State University, the University of the Virgin Islands, Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA, Emerson College in Boston, and Dartmouth College.

    I was a member of a team of writers who selected the Best First Mystery Novel of 1997 for the Edgar awards. 

    Also, like many writers, I contribute books to charities, give talks, and do book signings throughout the year for libraries, schools, bookstores, social organizations, literary gatherings, and other groups.