AUTHOR'S BIO

Beautiful Boy is based on David Sheff’s article “My Addicted Son,” which appeared in the New York Times Magazine. The article won a special award for Outstanding Contribution to Advancing the Understanding of Addictions from the American Psychological Association and inspired (and continues to inspire) hundreds of letters from readers, many of whom are suffering from addiction or the addiction of a loved one.  His research and writing about this subject is ongoing; most recently, he contributed to the HBO book Addiction: Why Can’t They Just Stop.

Along with The New York Times Magazine, Sheff, a contributing editor to Playboy, has also written for The New York Times, Wired, Fortune, Rolling Stone, Outside, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Esquire and Observer Magazine in England, Foreign Literature in Russia, and Playboy (Shueisha) in Japan. He has conducted seminal interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, nuclear physicist Ted Taylor, Congressman Barney Frank, Steve Jobs, Ansel Adams, Thomas Friedman, the founders of Google, Tom Hanks, Betty Friedan, Keith Haring, Jack Nicholson, Carl Sagan, Larry Ellison, Salman Rushdie, and others. He also wrote an award-winning documentary about John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and a radio special about Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, both for National Public Radio, and wrote and edited Heart Play: Unfinished Dialogue, which won a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Recording of 1984.

Sheff is the author of Game Over, published in a dozen languages, called “the bible of the videogame industry” by The Wall Street Journal. The New York Times called it “beguiling” and  "irresistible. . . almost as hypnotic as a successful video game" and it was praised by reviewers for Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, USA Today, The New York Review of Books, and hundreds of domestic and international magazines and newspapers. The Houston Chronicle said, "For business moguls who someday want to corner their markets, this book is a must-read…. Game Over is about as readable as a business book can be."  The Chicago Tribune called it “A cross between Barbarians at the Gate and The Soul of the New Machine.”

China Dawn, his book about the Internet revolution in China, was described in the Wall Street Journal as “the story of an insurgency, and a momentous one.”  Newsweek called it “an engaging look at how the Net revolution is playing out in a nation where the rules of capitalism don’t apply.” Salon.com added, “China Dawn is an arresting read…. China, at the turn of the century, comes alive.” The book was a Barnes and Noble editor’s pick. “Sheff's prose is as energetic and alive as his chosen subject.,” according to the reviewer. “[It’s] written with more zeal and energy than most thrillers. You'll find the book to be pleasurable as well as educational, entertaining as well as serious.” Author Gore Vidal added, “David Sheff has written a fascinating study of go-getting businessmen at work in a revived China –one that is bound to shape our future.” Marc Andreesen said: “China Dawn tells the spellbinding story of the people who are bringing the Internet to China, energizing the Chinese economy and catalyzing massive social change."

All We Are Saying, based on Sheff’s interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1980, was a Literary Guild Selection book. The Times called it, ''A fascinating, detailed glimpse into the workings of a musical genius” and People said it was “the most revealing portrait of John Lennon’s career.” In Time, Jay Cocks wrote: "The interview is lively proof that some of the best Lennon/Ono art was their life."

Sheff has been an editor of New West and California magazines and was a founding editor of Men’s Life and Yahoo Internet Life.  

He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sheff lives in Northern California with his wife, Karen Barbour, an artist, illustrator, and author of children’s books.  He has three children, Nic, Jasper, and Daisy Sheff.