Eugene L. Burdick was an American political scientist, novelist, and non-fiction writer, co-author of The Ugly American

The Ugly American

The Ugly American is the title of a 1958 political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer. The novel became a bestseller, was influential at the time, and is still in print...

(1958) and Fail-Safe

Fail-Safe (novel)

Fail-Safe is a novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, published in 1962.The popular and critically acclaimed novel was first adapted into a 1964 film of the same name directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Henry Fonda, Dan O'Herlihy, and Walter Matthau. In 2000, the novel was adapted again for...

(1962) and author of The 480

The 480

The 480 is a political fiction novel by Eugene Burdick .The plot evolves around the political turmoil after John F. Kennedy assassination in 1963. In the novel, a fictitious charismatic character, John Thatch, an engineer, is seeking nomination for the RepublicanParty candidate at 1964 presidential...

(1965).

He was born in Sheldon, Iowa

Sheldon, Iowa

Sheldon is a city in O'Brien and Sioux Counties in the U.S. state of Iowa, along the Floyd River. The population was 4,914 at the 2000 census; it is the largest city in O'Brien County.- History and culture :...

. His family moved to Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 when he was 4. He attended Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 and Oxford University, earning a Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in psychology. He worked at the department of political science at the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

. In 1956 his first novel, The Ninth Wave, was published.