John Berendt is an American author and journalist best known for his best-selling nonfiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Blending true crime and vivid portraits of Savannah, Georgia, the book became a cultural phenomenon, spending a record-breaking 216 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and inspiring Clint Eastwood’s 1997 film adaptation.
Born in Syracuse, New York, Berendt studied English at Harvard University, where he worked on the Harvard Lampoon. He went on to serve as associate editor of Esquire and editor of New York magazine, and later wrote a long-running Esquire column. His years in Savannah, beginning in 1985, gave him intimate access to the city’s eccentric residents and the real-life murder trial at the heart of Midnight.
Berendt’s second book, The City of Falling Angels (2005), explored Venice in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed its historic opera house, La Fenice. In 2011, he published the children’s book My Baby Blue Jays. In 2024, a stage musical adaptation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil premiered at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, with a Broadway opening planned for 2025.