Armistead Maupin is the treasured author of nine best-selling novels, including six Tales of the City which were originally collected from the daily serials he wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle beginning in 1976. A young man of the South and a Vietnam veteran, Maupin began his journalism career writing for The Daily Tar Heel, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s student newspaper. He later found himself working under future U.S. Senator Jesse Helms at WRAL-TV, whose anti-homosexual rhetoric inspired Maupin to leave North Carolina to pursue his ambitions with the Associated Press’ San Francisco Bureau. With his successful new roots in California, Maupin began to write his popular Tales of the City. Three miniseries starring Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney were captured from the first three Tales novels, and The Night Listener became a feature film starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette.