On March 7, 1964, Bret Easton Ellis was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended Benning-ton College in Vermont, graduating in 1986. His first novel, Less Than Zero, began as an assignment for a creative writing course, which was taught by the writer Joe McGinniss. Published in 1985, the novel appeared when the author was only twenty-one. It attracted much critical and popular attention, and Ellis became a very public figure. Less Than Zero was adapted to the screen and produced by Twentieth Century Fox in 1987.

Ellis's second novel, The Rules of Attraction, was published in 1987. His third novel, American Psycho, was published in 1991 and is perhaps his most controversial work for its portrayal of violence against women and its themes of materialism and morality. The Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women boycotted the book. American Psycho was adapted to the screen in 2000. In 1994 he published a...