Gerry Mandel has been writing for 70 years. Besides being a national award-winning advertising copywriter and creative director, his efforts have included three novels, two biographies, several plays, and a multitude of short stories, essays, meanderings and musings. His work has been published in literary journals and magazines. He has never won the Pulitzer, the Booker, nor a National Book Award, but remains hopeful. His novel Shadow and Substance: My Time with Charlie Chaplin has been widely read and praised. Gerry lives in Kirkwood, a leafy old suburb in St. Louis, Missouri.