Eric Van Lustbader

Eric Van Lustbader’s first novel, The Sunset Warrior, was published in 1975. Since then, he has published more than thirty-five best-selling novels, beginning with The Ninja, a New York Times Bestseller for 24 consecutive weeks. The Ninja introduced Nicholas Linnear, one of modern fiction’s most beloved and enduring heroes, continuing his exploits in five subsequent best-sellers. It also introduced the Western world to the Japanese term itself.

Mr. Lustbader is also the author of two successful and highly regarded major fantasy series, The Pearl, published by Tor Books in the US and HarperCollins/Voyager in the UK and The Sunset Warrior Cycle. He is the author of a number of short stories, screenplays and novellas. Three of the short stories appeared in 1999: “Hush,” in Off The Beaten Path: Stories of Place for Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, “Slow Burn,” in Murder And Obsession for Delacourt Press, and “An Exultation of Termagants” in the millennial supernatural mega-collection 1999 for Avon Books. A highly successful short novel, Art Kills, was published in 2000 by Carroll & Graf. He also has two stories in anthologies from the International Thriller Writers, an organization of which he is a long-time member.

In 2000 he was asked by DC Comics to write a graphic novel.  Mr. Lustbader chose to write about his favorite childhood comic character, Batman.  The result was “Batman — The Dark Angel,” which was the only graphic novel to be chosen as a Monthly Choice of the Quality Paperback Book Club.

In 2003, he was asked by Estate of the late Robert Ludlum to continue the series based on Jason Bourne. The Bourne Legacy, published in 2004 continues and updates the adventures of Robert Ludlum’s famous international assassin. Mr. Lustbader has gone on to write twelve more Bourne novels in the span of fourteen years.

In 2008, Mr. Lustbader wrote First Daughter to wide acclaim. The novel features Jack McClure and Alli Carson, Mr. Lustbader’s first continuing characters since Nicholas Linnear and Jake Maroc. There are five books in the McClure series.

Afterward, Mr. Lustbader turned his hand to writing three sequels to his internationally bestselling novel The Testament.

At the beginning of 2020 he stepped away from the Bourne franchise to concentrate on a new series, starring Evan Ryder, a female field agent with a complicated and surprising past. The Nemesis Manifesto, the first novel in the series was published in 2020. The follow-up, The Kobalt Dossier, will be published in June 2021. The third Evan Ryder novel, Omega Rules, is due in May 2022.

His novels have been translated into over twenty languages; his books are bestsellers worldwide and are so popular whole sections of bookstores from Bangkok to Dublin are devoted to them.

Mr. Lustbader was born and raised in Greenwich Village, where he developed an interest in art as well as in writing. He lived downstairs from the young Lauren Bacall and built orange-crate racers in Washington Square Park with Keith and David Carradine. He is a graduate of Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology, but his real education came much earlier at The City & Country School where, as Mr. Lustbader, is fond of saying, “I learned all the important lessons that would stay with me for life.”

Before turning to writing full time, he enjoyed highly successful careers in the New York City public school system where he holds licenses in both elementary and early childhood education, and in the music business where he worked for Elektra Records and CBS Records among other companies. He was the first writer in the US to write about Elton John and to predict his success. As a consequence he, Elton and Elton’s lyricist Bernie Taupin became friends. Writing for Cash Box Magazine, he also predicted the successes of such bands as Santana, Roxy Music, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, David Bowie, and The Who, among others.

Eric Van Lustbader served on the Board of Trustees and is Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee of the City & Country School in Greenwich Village. He also tends his prized collection of Japanese maples and beech trees (which have been written up in The New York Times and Martha Stewart Living). He is a second-level Reiki master. He listens to music constantly and is ever on the lookout for new bands and artists. To see his picks, please visit his Spotify account. He and his wife, the author and editor Victoria Lustbader, live on the eastern end of Long Island.