John Darnton

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John Darnton (born November 20, 1941 in New York City) is an American journalist and author. After attending the University of Wisconsin, Darnton joined The New York Times as a copyboy in 1966. Two years later he became a reporter and for the next eight years he worked in and around New York City, including stints as the Connecticut correspondent, during the Black Panther trials in New Haven, and as a City Hall reporter in the Lindsay and Beame Administrations. In 1976 he went abroad as a foreign correspondent, first covering Africa out of Lagos, Nigeria and then, when the military government there expelled him in 1977, out of Nairobi Kenya. He covered protests in South Africa, liberation movements in Rhodesia, guerrilla fighting in Ethiopia, Somalia, Zaire and elsewhere and the fall of Idi Amin in Uganda. His work in Africa earned him the 1978 George Polk Award. In 1979, he covered Eastern Europe for the Times, based in Warsaw, Poland, and he received both the Polk Award and the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Journalism for his coverage of Poland under martial law when he smuggled stories out of the country. He went on to become the bureau chief in Madrid and London and also served as the Deputy Foreign Editor, the Metropolitan Editor and the Culture Editor at the New York Times. He retired from the "New York Times" in 2005 and is an author in New York City.

In 1996, Darnton published his first novel, Neanderthal. The novel, which received a number of positive reviews and was well-received, became a bestseller overnight. Since his first success, Darnton has continued his career, publishing mostly thrillers with much scientific and historical detail. His most recent novel, 2005's The Darwin Conspiracy, deals with Victorian era England. He recently taught at the State University of New York at New Paltz.