John Hughes Popular Books
John Hughes Biography & Facts
John Wilden Hughes Jr. (February 18, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He began his career in 1970 as an author of humorous essays and stories for the National Lampoon magazine. He went on in Hollywood to write, produce and sometimes direct some of the most successful live-action comedy films of the 1980s. He directed such films as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, and Uncle Buck; and wrote the films National Lampoon's Vacation, Mr. Mom, Pretty in Pink, The Great Outdoors, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Dutch, and Beethoven. Most of Hughes' works were set in Chicago. He is best known for his coming-of-age teen comedy films with honest depictions of suburban teenage life. Many of his most enduring characters from these years were written for Molly Ringwald. While out on a walk one morning in New York City in the summer of 2009, Hughes suffered a fatal heart attack. His legacy after his death was honored by many, including at the 82nd Academy Awards by many actors he had worked with such as Ringwald, Matthew Broderick, Anthony Michael Hall, Chevy Chase, and Macaulay Culkin, among others. Actors whose careers Hughes helped launch include Michael Keaton, Hall, Bill Paxton, Broderick, Culkin, and members of the Brat Pack group. Early life and education Hughes was born on February 18, 1950, in Lansing, Michigan, to Marion Crawford, who volunteered in charity work, and John Hughes Sr., who worked in sales. He was the only boy, and had three sisters. He spent the first twelve years of his life in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, where he was a fan of Detroit Red Wings right winger Gordie Howe. (One of Howe's #9 jerseys, sent by Howe himself, was later prominently featured in Hughes's 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.) Hughes described himself as "kind of quiet" as a kid. I grew up in a neighborhood that was mostly girls and old people. There weren't any boys my age, so I spent a lot of time by myself, imagining things. And every time we would get established somewhere, we would move. Life just started to get good in seventh grade, and then we moved to Chicago. I ended up in a really big high school, and I didn't know anybody. But then The Beatles came along (and) changed my whole life. And then Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home came out and really changed me. Thursday I was one person, and Friday I was another. My heroes were Dylan, John Lennon and Picasso, because they each moved their particular medium forward, and when they got to the point where they were comfortable, they always moved on. In 1963, Hughes's family moved to Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. There, his father found work selling roofing materials. Hughes attended Grove Middle School, later going on to Glenbrook North High School, which gave him inspiration for the films that eventually made his reputation. He met Nancy Ludwig, a cheerleader and his future wife, in high school. As a teenager, Hughes turned to movies as an escape. According to childhood friend Jackson Peterson, "His mom and dad criticized him a lot (...) She [Marion] would be critical of what John would want to do". Hughes was an avid fan of the Beatles, and according to several friends, he knew a lot about movies and the Rat Pack. Career 1970–1981: Rise to prominence After dropping out of the University of Arizona, Hughes began selling jokes to well-established performers such as Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers. Hughes used his jokes to get an entry-level job at Needham, Harper & Steers as an advertising copywriter in Chicago in 1970 and later in 1974 at Leo Burnett Worldwide. During this period, he created what became the famous Edge "Credit Card Shaving Test" ad campaign. Hughes's work on the Virginia Slims account frequently took him to the Philip Morris headquarters in New York City, which allowed him to visit the offices of National Lampoon magazine. Soon thereafter, Hughes became a regular contributor; editor P. J. O'Rourke recalled that "John wrote so fast and so well that it was hard for a monthly magazine to keep up with him." One of Hughes's first stories, inspired by his family trips as a child, was "Vacation '58", later to become the basis for the film National Lampoon's Vacation. Among his other contributions to the Lampoon, the April Fools' Day stories "My Penis" and "My Vagina" gave an early indication of Hughes's ear for the particular rhythm of teenspeak, as well as for the various indignities of teenage life in general. 1982–1986: Breakthrough and teen films His first credited screenplay, National Lampoon's Class Reunion, was written while he was still on staff at the magazine. The resulting film became the second disastrous attempt by the flagship to duplicate the runaway success of National Lampoon's Animal House. Hughes's next screenplay for the imprint, however, National Lampoon's Vacation, would become a major hit in 1983. This, along with the success of another Hughes script that same year, Mr. Mom, earned him a three-film deal with Universal Pictures. Hughes's directorial debut, Sixteen Candles (1984), won almost unanimous praise when it was released in 1984, due in no small part to its more honest depiction of navigating adolescence and the social dynamics of high school life in stark contrast to the Porky's-inspired comedies made at the time. It was the first in a string of efforts about teenage life set in or around high school, including The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), all of which he wrote and directed, and Pretty in Pink (1986) and Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), which he wrote and produced. 1987–2008: Beyond teen movies To avoid being pigeonholed as a maker of only teen movies, Hughes branched out in 1987 by writing, directing, and producing the hit comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles starring Steve Martin and John Candy. His later output was not so well received critically, though films like Uncle Buck and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation proved popular. His final film as a director was 1991's Curly Sue. By that time, in 1991, his John Hughes Entertainment production company had signed various deals with 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Actor John Candy created many memorable roles in films written, directed or produced by Hughes, including National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), The Great Outdoors (1988), Uncle Buck (1989), Home Alone (1990), Career Opportunities and Only the Lonely (both 1991). Over the years, Hughes and Candy developed a close friendship. Hughes was greatly shaken by Candy's sudden death from a heart attack in 1994. "He talked a lot about how much he loved Candy—if Candy had lived longer, I think John would have made more films as a director", says Vince Vaughn, a friend of Hughes. Hughes's greatest commercial .... Discover the John Hughes popular books. Find the top 100 most popular John Hughes books.
Best Seller John Hughes Books of 2024
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The Penguin Book of Elegy
Prof Stephen Regan & Andrew Motion'A tremendous sentimental education of a book ... a literary adventure ... chosen with a scholarly discernment mixed with a wildcard flair ... fascinating and unignorable' Kate Kel...
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Petrarch in English
Thomas RocheFranceso Petrarch (13041374), creator of the sonnet form, remained for more than three hundred years the most influential poet in Europe, his works more widely read than even those...
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Love Visions
Geoffrey Chaucer & Brian StoneSpanning Chaucer's working life, these four poems build on the medieval convention of 'love visions' poems inspired by dreams, woven into rich allegories about the rituals and emo...
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The Book of Magic
Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin, Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear & Garth NixA new anthology celebrating the witches and sorcerers of epic fantasyfeaturing stories by George R. R. Martin, Scott Lynch, Megan Lindholm, and many others! Hot on the heels of Gar...
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Getting started with iPad
Jigsaw24Let’s be honest, Apple’s iPad is pretty awesome. Everybody wants one, and now you’ve gone and got your hands on one. But, what next? If you’ve used one of Apple’s touch devices bef...
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Pieces
Stephen ChboskyMTV has discovered the authors of tomorrow. Read them today in Pieces. This unique shortstory collection is more than a good read it's an exciting glimpse into the future of fict...
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The Meet-Cute Project
Rhiannon Richardson“A sweet and honest romcom that you don’t want to miss.” Rachael Lippincott, New York Times bestselling author of Five Feet Apart To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets Save the D...
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Creepy Crawling
Jeffrey Melnick"Creepy crawling" was the Manson Family's practice of secretly entering someone's home and, without harming anyone, leaving only a trace of evidence that they had been there, some ...
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Selected Poems
John DrydenA new and comprehensive selection of Dryden's poetry, revealing him as a master of theatricality, ventriloquism, and unmistakable originality. Brought together here are many of the...
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The Convictions of John Delahunt
Andrew HughesDublin, 1841. On a cold December morning, a small boy is enticed away from his mother and his throat savagely cut. This could be just one more small, sad death in a city riven by p...
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Poetry 101
Susan DalzellBecome a poet and write poetry with ease with help from this clear and simple guide in the popular 101 series. Poetry never goes out of style. An ancient writing form found in civi...
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Love in English
Maria E. AndreuA fresh, joyful YA novel that is layered with themes of immigration, cultural identity, and finding your voice in any language. Sixteenyearold Ana is a poet and a lover of lan...
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Poems of Thomas Hardy
Claire Tomalin & Thomas HardyThomas Hardy wrote some of the most moving and personal poems in his era and this collection brings together the best of his verse on life and love.Hardy's poems are by turn haunti...
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The Unofficial Home Alone Cookbook
Bryton TaylorRelive the magic of the iconic moments with these 75 recipes inspired by the cultclassic holiday movie Home Alone.It’s your kitchen…you have to defend it! Whether you’re fending of...
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Real Irish New York
Dermot McEvoyAs they entered their six hundredth year of British occupation, the Irish looked to America. By the 1840s, America was the oasis that the Irish sought during a decade of both famin...
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Aurora Leigh and Other Poems
Elizabeth BrowningAurora Leigh (1856), Elizabeth Barrett Browning's epic novel in blank verse, tells the story of the making of a woman poet, exploring 'the woman question', art and its relation to ...
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Letters from the Dead
Sam Hurcom'Gothic, claustrophobic, and wonderfully dark' GUARDIAN on Sam Hurcom's Thomas Bexley novels...The next stifling, atmospheric gothic crime novel following one of the world's first ...
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Songs of the Dying Earth
George R.R. Martin & Gardner DozoisThis tribute anthology celebrates the work of SF/F legend Jack Vance, featuring original stories from George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Dan Simmons, Elizabeth Moon, Tanith Lee, Tad...
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Life Moves Pretty Fast
Hadley FreemanFrom Vogue contributor and Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman, a personalized guide to eighties movies that describes why they changed moviemaking foreverfeaturing exclusive intervi...
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Selected Poems
Tony HarrisonA revised edition of Tony Harrison's awardwinning Selected Poems This indispensable new selection of Tony Harrison's poems includes over sixty poems from his famous sonnet sequence...
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Istanbul
John FreelyIstanbul's history is a catalogue of change, not least of name, yet it has managed to retain its own unique identity. John Freely captures the flavour of daily life as well as cour...
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A History Of The First World War In 100 Objects
John Hughes-WilsonA History of the First World War in 100 Objects narrates the causes, progress and outcome of the First World War by telling the stories behind 100 items of material evidence of tha...
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So Bright and Delicate
Jane Campion & John KeatsPublished to coincide with the release of the film Bright Star, written and directed by Oscar Winner Jane Campion (The Piano, In the Cut), starring Abbie Cornish (Elizabeth: The Go...
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Russian Thinkers
Isaiah Berlin & Henry HardyFew, if any, Englishlanguage critics have written as perceptively as Isaiah Berlin about Russian thought and culture. Russian Thinkers is his unique meditation on the impact that R...
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The Faerie Queene
Edmund Spenser, C O'Donnell & Thomas RocheThe Faerie Queene was the first epic in English and one of the most influential poems in the language for later poets from Milton to Tennyson. Dedicating his work to Elizabeth I, S...
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How Lovely the Ruins
Annie Chagnot & Emi IkkandaThis wideranging collection of inspirational poetry and prose offers readers solace, perspective, and the courage to persevere.In times of personal hardship or collective anxiety, ...
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The FSG Poetry Anthology
Jonathan Galassi & Robyn CreswellTo honor FSG's 75th anniversary, here is a unique anthology celebrating the riches and variety of its poetry listpast, present, and futurePoetry has been at the heart of Farrar, St...
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Welcome to OS X
Jigsaw24In case you’re new to OS X and the Apple ecosystem, we thought we’d give you a few key tips to help you get up to speed. As well as covering off basic navigation and controls, we’l...
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Maximinus Thrax
Paul N. PearsonThe first fulllength biography of the halfbarbarian emperor.Maximinus was a Thracian tribesman “of frightening appearance and colossal size” who could smash stones with his bare ha...
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John Hughes FAQ
Thomas A. ChristieCovering the entirety of Hughes's career, from his earliest features through to his mainstream boxoffice successes, John Hughes FAQ explores the key factors that contributed to his...
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We All Looked Up
Tommy WallachFour high school seniors put their hopes, hearts, and humanity on the line as an asteroid hurtles toward Earth in Tommy Wallach’s New York Times bestselling “stunning debut” (Kirku...
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Engaging iPad lesson ideas
Jigsaw24This guide is here to help develop the iPad technology with pedagogy and content. The true integration of 1:1 technology can only take place if we consider all three as integral pa...
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Pretty in Punxsutawney
Laurie Boyle CromptonThe only thing worse than the first day of senior year at a new high school is reliving it over, and over again. This ?Groundhog Day? meets Pretty in Pink mashup has...
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Rainmaker
Hughes NortonA rollicking tellall from golf superagent, Hughes Norton, detailing everything from his lifechanging work with Tiger Woods and Greg Norman to his thoughts on golf’s current moneygr...
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Put It Out There
D. R. GrahamThe first book in the Britannia Beach series, perfect for fans of Katie McGarry.‘Did you miss me?’Returning home to Britannia Beach a year after her life was shattered is bitterswe...
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The Crossroads of Civilization
Angus Robertson"From the Congress of Vienna to the Austria World Summit, the city of Vienna has hosted key meetings on peace to climate action. This is a firstclass book about Vienna as the cross...
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Wartime Farm
Peter Ginn, Ruth Goodman & Alexander LanglandsDuring World War Two Britain had to look to the land to provide the produce it had previously shipped in from abroad, meaning huge changes on both the agricultural and domestic sce...
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Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
John BunyanComposed and published while John Bunyan (16281688) was in prison for his religious principles, Grace Abounding is an extraordinary spiritual autobiography. It was written in an ag...
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The 50 Funniest American Writers
Andy BorowitzNew York Times BestsellerThe creator of The New Yorker’s long running satirical column, and “one of the funniest people in America,” pays tribute to comedic geniuses both past and ...