Amor Towles

Amor Towles (born 1964) is an American novelist. He is best known for his bestselling novels Rules of Civility (2011),^[1] A Gentleman in Moscow (2016),^[2] and The Lincoln Highway (2021).^[3] Towles began writing following a career in investment banking.

Amor Towles
Towles in 2018
Born	1964 (age 60–61) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist
Education	Yale University (BA) Stanford University (MA)
Period	2011–present
Genre	Literary fiction
Notable works	A Gentleman in Moscow
Spouse	Maggie
Children	2
Website
www.amortowles.com

Early life and education

Towles was born and raised in Boston, to Stokley Porter Towles, an investment banker at Brown Brothers Harriman and a philanthropist, and Holly Hollingsworth. His parents later divorced. He has a brother, Stokley Jr.; a sister, Kimbrough; and two stepbrothers.^[4] When Towles was 10 years old, he threw a bottle with a message into the Atlantic Ocean. Several weeks later, he received a letter from Harrison Salisbury, then managing editor of The New York Times, who had found the bottle. Towles and Salisbury corresponded for many years afterward.^[5]

He graduated from Yale College and received a Master of Arts degree in English from Stanford University, where he was a Scowcroft Fellow. The thesis for his M.A. titled Temptations of Pleasure was published in The Paris Review in 1989.^[6]

Career

After graduating from Yale University, Towles was set to teach in China on a two-year fellowship from the Yale China Association. However, this was abruptly canceled due to the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.^[7] From 1991 to 2012, he worked as an investment manager and director of research at Select Equity Group in New York.^[8][9]

When Towles was a young man, he credited Peter Matthiessen, nature writer, novelist, and one of the founders of The Paris Review, as the primary inspiration for writing novels.^[10] Towles' first novel, Rules of Civility, was successful beyond his expectations.^[11]

His second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, which was on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for 59 weeks,^[12] was a finalist for the 2016 Kirkus Prize for Fiction.^[13] It was also longlisted for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award.^[14] A television adaptation starring Ewan McGregor was released on Paramount+ in March 2024.^[15]

Towles' third novel, The Lincoln Highway, was published on October 5, 2021.^[16] It was chosen by Amazon as the best book of 2021.^[17] As of May 15, 2022, it had been on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list for 30 weeks.^[18] In April 2024, Towles released a book of short fiction titled Table for Two.^[6]

Personal life

Towles resides in Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City, with his wife Maggie, their son Stokley, and their daughter Esmé.^[19] Towles is a collector of fine art and antiques.^[19]

Awards and honors

• 2016 Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction

Works

Fiction

• Rules of Civility: A Novel. New York: Viking. 2011. ISBN 978-0-670-02269-4.
• Eve in Hollywood: A Penguin Special (collection of six interlinked short stories). Penguin. 2013. ISBN 978-1-101-63092-1.
• A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel. New York: Viking. 2016. ISBN 978-0-670-02619-7.
• You Have Arrived at Your Destination (novella). Forward. Vol. 4. Amazon Original Stories. 2019. ASIN B07VBCYTGR.^[20]
• The Lincoln Highway: A Novel. New York: Viking. 2021. ISBN 978-0-7352-2235-9.
• Table for Two. Viking Press. 2024-04-02. ISBN 978-0-593-29637-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)^[21][22][23]

Essays

• "Channel a More Romantic Era of Transatlantic Travel" (2016)^[24]