I Love Galesburg in the Springtime

Jack Finney (1911 - 1995)

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, his given name was John Finney. After the death of his father when he was three years old he was renamed Walter Braden Finney in honour of his father's memory. Despite this, he continued to go by the name "Jack" throughout his life. Finney graduated in 1934 from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and later moved to New York with his family where he worked for an advertising agency. As a writer, Finney's early works were relatively successful, with his first short story, 'The Widow's Walk', winning a contest sponsored by Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1946 and his first novel, 5 Against the House (1954), being turned into a film the year after publication. But he is best know as the author of The Body Snatchers, which became the hugely popular and influential film, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

For more information see www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/finney_jack