Publication Order of Eddie Felson Books
| The Hustler | 1959 |
| The Color of Money | 1984 |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| The Man Who Fell to Earth | 1963 |
| Mockingbird | 1980 |
| The Steps of the Sun | 1983 |
| The Queen’s Gambit | 1983 |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
| Far from Home | 1981 |
| The King Is Dead | 2023 |
About Walter Tevis
Walter Tevis (1928 to 1984) was an American novelist who wrote six novels, four of which have been adapted for the screen: “The Hustler”, “The Man Who Fell to Earth”, “The Color of Money” and “The Queen’s Gambit”. His books range from pool halls and chess tournaments to science fiction.
Tevis was born in San Francisco and spent his first ten years there. A rheumatic heart condition led his parents to place him in a children’s convalescent home for a year while the family moved to Kentucky, and he travelled across the country alone by train at the age of 11 to join them. He joined the US Navy at 17 and served as a carpenter’s mate in Okinawa. At the University of Kentucky he took a BA and an MA in English literature and studied under the novelist A. B. Guthrie Jr., and he later received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
While teaching in small-town Kentucky high schools he sold short stories to magazines including Esquire, Collier’s, Playboy and The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel, “The Hustler” (1959), follows the young pool player “Fast Eddie” Felson and his challenge to the legendary Minnesota Fats; the 1961 film starred Paul Newman. “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1963) is about an alien who comes to Earth hoping to save the survivors of his own drought-stricken planet. Nicolas Roeg filmed it in 1976 with David Bowie.
Tevis taught English literature and creative writing at Ohio University from 1965 to 1978 and published no novels in those years. He struggled with alcoholism, which he overcame in the 1970s, and then moved to New York to write full time. “Mockingbird” (1980), set in a future New York where robots run a society that has forgotten how to read, was nominated for the Nebula Award. The story collection “Far from Home” followed in 1981.
Two novels appeared in 1983: the science fiction story “The Steps of the Sun” and “The Queen’s Gambit”, about the chess prodigy Beth Harmon. His last book, “The Color of Money” (1984), returned to Eddie Felson, and Martin Scorsese directed the film version. Tevis died of lung cancer in New York in August 1984. Netflix adapted “The Queen’s Gambit” as a miniseries starring Anya Taylor-Joy in 2020, and a second collection of stories, “The King Is Dead”, was published in 2023.