William Bernhardt
AUTHOR

William Bernhardt

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I love writing and consider myself very fortunate to be able to do what I always wanted to do. I love all the readers who have embraced my novels, especially the Ben Kincaid and Daniel Pike thrillers. Many have asked what caused me to pivot from fiction to nonfiction for The Superman Wars: A Battle for Truth, Justice and an American Icon, a history/biography of Jerry Siegel, the Depression-era Cleveland kid who came up with the idea for the world's first superhero. Let me explain.

My research for the last Pike book (Justice For All), which focused on an art-vs-commerce conflict, led me to investigate Jerry Siegel who, with his best friend artist Joe Shuster, gave the world its first superhero, launching a new genre and giving credibility to this new entity called the "comic book." But I was appalled by much that I learned. Jerry lost the rights to the character and in 1947 became the first American writer to sue his publisher. In retaliation, the publisher fired him (despite a long-term employment agreement) and worse, removed he and Joe's names from their own creation, initiating decades of litigation and personal hardship for Jerry and Joe.

I thought my legal background might help me untangle all those lawsuits, but I didn't want to write a book that was just about lawyering. I wanted readers to understand not just what happened but why, so I wrote from the viewpoint of Jerry Siegel. I wanted to tell the complete story, from Superman's first appearance in 1938 to the last breath of litigation (we hope) in 2016. Some may recall the "pension PR campaign" of 1975, but more than fifty years of conflict and strife followed that. I found that most young people, even diehard comic book fans, had no clue what happened to the inventors of the superhero. That's when I knew I had to write The Superman Wars.

Happily, the book has been warmly received. Even those who have zero interest in comic books seem to be drawn by the underdog struggle and important role fans and family played in this battle between commerce and conscience. I see this as a cautionary tale for writers and other creatives. Protect yourself! I host an annual writer's conference (WriterCon) for exactly this purpose—to give people the information they need to protect themselves from vanity presses, AI fraud, and other schemes intended to exploit creatives. Don't let what happened to Jerry happen to you!

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WILLIAM BERNHARDT IS THE AUTHOR of more than sixty books, including the nationally bestselling Ben Kincaid legal thriller series. Bernhardt has received the Southern Writers Guild’s Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis, S. J., Distinguished Author Award, the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award, and the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his books, Bernhardt has written plays, a musical, children’s stories, and New York Times crossword puzzles. In 2013, he became a Jeopardy! champion. He lives in Oklahoma with his wife, children, and a cat named Bustopher.
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