J. EDWARD GRAY
Bringing history back to life
Author. Lawyer. Historian. Outdoorsman.
J. Edward Gray
J. Edward Gray had humble beginnings as the son of a West Virginia coal miner. He knew he would have to work hard to achieve more, yet he received his B.A. in history from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from the University of Richmond. Known to family and friends as Jim, the author went on to become a federal tax trial lawyer winning more than he lost. During his 30+ year career, he went after some of the most sophisticated tax schemes ever devised by New York City accountants and lawyers.
Early in his career, he moved to North Carolina, where historical markers about Levi Coffin and the Underground Railroad spurred him to research mid-19th century Quakers and Greensboro. Finding interest in the subject, he used his storytelling skills to craft a novel about two Quaker brothers who make decisions that go against their faith. And it is those decisions, for good or bad, that impact the lives of family and friends for three generations.
In Jim's first two novels, New Garden and Trouble at Mono Pass, a sibling rivalry festers against the background of the mid-1800’s – including slavery, the Civil War, and the construction of America’s first transcontinental railroad.
In The Greater Good – Murder Comes to Yosemite’s High Sierra, he turned to his love for a great national park. The story evolved from Jim’s first mountain hikes when he wondered about dangers lurking down the trail. And after seeing park building walls scrawled with graffiti ranting against society’s desecration of wilderness, Jim asked whether someone with the mindset of the Unabomber might set out on a campaign to kill wealthy hikers whose wills left their fortunes to Yosemite----justified by The Greater Good.
The Greater Good is narrated by two characters - AJ O’Leary, a young law student serving as a seasonal park ranger, and the killer. Jim hopes to publish the second novel in the series by the end of 2019.
Jim is a devoted member of the Yosemite Conservancy and annually hikes the trails of Yosemite National Park. He has seamlessly woven his legal experience and extensive knowledge of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada into his novels.
Jim and his wife reside in Greensboro, NC. They have one daughter who lives in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area.
Follow Jim’s work, as he brings history to life in both fact and fiction.