Jack Gantos, really John Gantos, was borne in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania on October 7, 1953. He has a mother, father, and an older sister. He got his interest in writing as a young child from the time when he read his older sister's journal and thought that he could write one better. His father was constantly on the move bouncing from job to job. This was hard on the family because they ended up having to move houses over and over again. By the time Jack had reached high school he had already moved a total of ten times. He was starting to generate a large group of friends from many different places.
Jack obtained a fairly good education. It was in his grammar school years that he discovered that he loved to read, but that in fact his skill level was lower than the average kid his age. He completed grammar school without any major complications. Jack was never in one high school for more than a year. Right before his senior graduation at one high school, his dad switched jobs and Jack didn't finish the year and get his high school diploma. Rather than start his senior year over at a new high school Jack helped out his dad by giving him an extra helping hand working as an electrician. He quickly realized that he had no future in this field of work after a few bad experiences of getting shocked by live wires. Later on in life Jack did obtain a college education as well as become a teacher himself. Jack made the decision to move into a local hotel a live away from the family, yet close enough so that he could keep in touch. Jack got a job at a near by grocery store so that he could make so money for college. He wanted to take some created writing classes at the college level. Jack had a ton of freedom and all the friends that anyone could ever want. Jack started by drinking alcohol with his friends and moved on to becoming a total drug addict smoking marijuana and hashish. He was moving on a downhill path faster than he could handle.
One day while drinking at a bar, Jack was given an offer by a man he had never met before to sail a small ship loaded with two-thousand pounds of hashish from St. Croix, all the way to New York City for a total of $10,000. Jack was eager to go to college and he saw this as an opportunity to make enough money to go. He accepted the job and met his sailing partner Hamilton the next day who would be his captain. The next day he and Hamilton started their journey from St. Croix to New York City. It took them about three weeks to accomplish this task and they had no major complications on the way. What they didn't know was that they had been ratted out by someone and that the FBI was watching them. As soon as Jack and Hamilton got the ship ported in a New York City dock the man Jack met at the bar paid him his $10,000 and took all of the hashish. Jack was ecstatic that he now had enough money to go to college.
After a couple of days of staying in a local hotel, the FBI cracked down on him and Hamilton and they were both arrested. Jack got a lawyer and gave him all of the money he had made shipping the drugs. The next day Jack made the decision to turn himself in and confess to all of his charges so that he would hopefully not have to go to jail, but to get away with a couple years probation. He didn't get his wish. Jack was sentenced to between 60 days and 6 years of federal prison. The more he behaved and cooperated, the quicker he would get out of jail.
Right when Jack walked into the prison doors he new he wasn't going to fit in here. He asked one of the officers there if there were any job opportunities for the inmates here. The officer told him that there was one job spot left as an x-rayer. Jack gladly took the job. Jack was keeping himself out of trouble much easier than he could out on the yard by being behind closed doors in the prison hospital. Even though Jack had good behavior he didn't have any street smarts so he couldn't give any drug dealer's names to the officers at the prison. Jack ended up staying in prison for three years before he was released. Jack was 21 years old by now and he still was very eager to go to college. He started an application for a community college in New York and about two weeks after sending it in he got a letter back from the college saying that he was accepted. He paid his first quarter tuition fees in cash; he didn't want any more bad things to happen from now on.
Jack started to write memoirs of his childhood that he decided to make into children's books. He loved keeping journals about what he did every day. Jack took his creative writing college courses for two years and had a very good time there. He was very happy to be able to not worry about homework and other college assignments, but to just worry about getting his writing career on the road. Jack got his first books published at the age of 24; they were the Rotten Ralph Series . Jack wrote a couple other books over the years such as Joey Pigza Loses Control and Hole In My Life . Today Jack talks about his past in local schools and is a professor at a local college. He has a wife and one daughter and they are presently living in Boston, Massachusetts.
Jack has done pretty well at winning awards for his writing. In 1976 he won the best book for young readers for his Rotten Ralph Series . He won a Newbery Honor Award for his book Joey Pigza Loses Control . He has a great assortment of awards and thank-yous for all the motivational speeches he has given.
Jack Gantos turned his life around from an arrested drug addict to an honorable citizen of Boston. He is still giving speeches to local schools and universities and feels like he is helping out the community. He continues to tell his life story about how he paved the hole in his life. Jack is 55 years old today and he continues to write books and spend time with his family.
