Ron Terpening | |
|---|---|
 Terpening in Tucson, 2006 | |
| Born | Ronnie Harold Terpening May 3, 1946 Bellingham, Washington, U.S. |
| Pen name | Gerrit Lambertzen, Sarah Rapalje-Bergen |
| Occupation | Author, professor of Italian |
| Education | University of Oregon, University of California, Berkeley |
| Genre | Suspense, Thrillers, Young-adult Fiction |
| Notable awards | National Endowment for the Humanities (1983) |
| Spouse | Vicki Terpening |
| Website | |
| ronterpening | |
Ron Terpening (born Ronnie Harold Terpening on May 3, 1946) is an American writer, professor of Italian, and editor. Though he started his writing career as an author of young-adult fiction, where the father/son conflict is a major theme, he is best known for his later novels of suspense, most of which are set, at least in part, in Italy, reflecting his academic background as a scholar of Italian culture. His thriller League of Shadows, for example, deals with the Fascist Era in Italy and its aftermath in the contemporary world.[1] A later international thriller, Nine Days in October, came out of the author's course research on the forces of order and disorder in contemporary Italy[2] and follows a band of criminals and ex-terrorists as they attempt to carry out an assassination plot. All of his novels, including Storm Track and Tropic of Fear, the latter set in Paraguay, are noted for their strong sense of place.[3] In most of his novels, his protagonist is usually a common man placed in a situation where powerful forces are arrayed against him.
While his novels take place in the modern era, Terpening's academic research has focused on Italian authors of the Renaissance, most notably the Venetian Humanist Lodovico Dolce, although he has also published a study of the infernal boatman Charon and numerous articles on other writers of the 15th and 16th centuries. His editing work has ranged from textbooks, mostly anthologies of Italian literature, to broad studies of Italian culture.
- ^ In an interview, Terpening stated that he first learned of Mussolini’s secret police, the OVRA, the focus of the novel’s historical episodes, when he designed a course on Benito Mussolini and Fascism. See Ronterpening.com and the last question in his interview for The Turning: Ronterpening.com
- ^ See Ronterpening.com
- ^ See Terpening’s interview for Tropic of Fear: Ronterpening.com