P. J. O'Rourke

O'Rourke was married to Amy Lumet, a daughter of movie director Sidney Lumet and a granddaughter of Lena Horne, from 1990 to 1993.

He got married to his second wife, Tina, in 1995 and the couple has two daughters and a son together: Elizabeth, Olivia and Clifford. He splits his time between the small town of Sharon, New Hampshire, and Washington, D.C.

In 2008, he was diagnosed with treatable anal cancer; he had a 95% chance of survival with that. He announced it publicly in his typical humorous and satirical style.

P. J. O’Rourke was born in Toledo, Ohio, in a middle-class family to a car dealer and a housewife.

He did his under-graduation from Miami University in Ohio and pursued M.A. in English from John Hopkins University and was a part of the Alpha Delta Phi Literary Society.

O’Rourke was a leftist in his political views when he was growing up but he went through a major change in his political outlook and emerged as a political observer and a satirist with libertarian ideas.

O’Rourke started his career by writing articles for various American publications, like, The Rip Off Review of Western Culture, which was an underground magazine and comic book, in 1972.

He joined National Lampoon in 1973, after working for publications like Harry (a Baltimore underground newspaper) and the New York Ace. At the National Lampoon, he worked as managing editor.

He wrote articles such as ‘Foreigners Around the World’ and ‘How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink’ for the National Lampoon.

He earned a writing acknowledgment for National Lampoon's Lemmings, a spinoff of the National Lampoon humor magazine in 1973. It was a stage show, which kick started the careers of John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest.

O’Rourke also co-authored National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook with writer Douglas Kenney. The book was a bestseller of the year and many of its themes were adapted into the movie ‘Animal House’.

The most prominent work of O’Rourke’s career is considered to be his 16 satirical and politically incorrect books on politics and culture. His ‘Parliament of Whores (1991)’ and ‘Give War a Chance (1992)’ were No.1 on New York Times Best Seller List.