Jerry B. Jenkins
Jerry B. Jenkins (born September 23, 1949 in Kalamazoo, Michigan) is a novelist and biographer whose books usually feature evangelical Christians as protagonists. His output of more than 150 books has included romantic mysteries and children's adventures, as well as non-fiction, but he is best known as co-author of the Left Behind series of books with Tim LaHaye. He and his wife Dianna have been married for more than 33 years and have three sons and three grandsons.
Jenkins was editor of Moody Magazine and later vice president for publishing for the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. That conservative Christian school and publisher now lists him as its "writer-at-large", although his vastly successful Left Behind series was published by Tyndale House, also a conservative Christian publishing house. He has also written books on Hank Aaron, Brett Butler, Bill Gaither, Orel Hershiser, Luis Palau, Walter Payton, Nolan Ryan, and Sammy Tippit among many others.
Jerry Jenkins also helped Dr. Billy Graham with his memoirs, Just As I Am, which was one of several of his books to become a New York Times bestseller. Beginning in 1993, Jenkins spent 13 months assisting Dr. Graham with his autobiography.
From 1996 to 2004, Jenkins was writer of the sports-oriented comic strip Gil Thorp, handpicked by creator Jack Berrill to succeed him after the latter's death. Many of the stories were written uncredited by his son Chad Jenkins, an assistant basketball coach at Bethel College.
Jenkins and co-author Tim LaHaye of the Left Behind series were profiled in a May 24, 2004 cover story in Newsweek magazine entitled "The New Prophets of Revelation". LaHaye, also associated with Moody Bible Institute, handles the theological under-pinnings of his end-of-the-world series, while Jenkins handles the story-telling.
Jenkins and LaHaye ranked 9th in Amazon.com's 10th Anniversary Hall of Fame authors, a ranking of authors who have written or coauthored the largest numbers of books sold at Amazon.com in the 10 years since it opened on July 16, 1995.