Publication Order of Hannibal Lecter Books
| Red Dragon | 1981 |
| The Silence of the Lambs | 1988 |
| Hannibal | 1999 |
| Hannibal Rising | 2006 |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| Black Sunday | 1975 |
| Cari Mora | 2019 |
About Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris is an American novelist, born on 22 September 1940 in Jackson, Tennessee, and the creator of Hannibal Lecter. He has published six novels since 1975, four of them featuring Lecter, including “Red Dragon” and “The Silence of the Lambs”. His books have sold more than 50 million copies.
Harris moved with his family to Rich, Mississippi, as a child. He studied English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, graduating in 1964, and while a student he covered the police beat for the Waco Tribune-Herald. In 1968 he moved to New York City to work for the Associated Press, where he was a reporter and editor until 1974.
He left to write “Black Sunday” (1975), a thriller about a terrorist plot to commit mass murder at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, which he began after the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. It had only moderate success until it was sold to Hollywood, and the film version appeared in 1977. “Red Dragon” (1981) introduced Lecter, a psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer consulted by the former FBI profiler Will Graham. In “The Silence of the Lambs” (1988) the FBI trainee Clarice Starling turns to Lecter while hunting the killer known as Buffalo Bill. That novel has sold more than 10 million copies. “Hannibal” (1999) is set seven years later, and “Hannibal Rising” (2006) is a prequel.
The books have been filmed repeatedly. Michael Mann adapted “Red Dragon” as “Manhunter” (1986), with Brian Cox as Lecter. Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, became the third film to win all five major Academy Awards. Hopkins returned in “Hannibal” (2001), directed by Ridley Scott, and in “Red Dragon” (2002). Harris wrote the screenplay for “Hannibal Rising” (2007) himself. The NBC television series “Hannibal” (2013 to 2015) cast Mads Mikkelsen in the role, and the CBS series “Clarice” followed in 2021.
Harris avoids publicity and gave few interviews between 1976 and 2019. He received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2007. His most recent novel, “Cari Mora” (2019), was his first in 13 years and the second without Lecter: it follows a young Colombian immigrant in Miami who looks after a mansion with cartel gold hidden beneath it. Harris has spent 20 years as a visitor and volunteer at the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, an animal rescue centre in Miami.