Gene Stone


Gene Stone is an American writer and editor.

Early life and editorial career

Gene Stone grew up in the Westchester County suburb of Pelham, New York, the son of lawyer Henry Stone and author/editor Babette Rosmond, and the brother of James M. Stone, founder and CEO of Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation.
After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford and receiving his masters in English Literature from Harvard, Stone joined the Peace Corps, where he spent two years in the Republic of Niger. Returning to New York, he then started a career as an editor. He began at Harcourt Brace, where he edited a wide range of books including Patricia Bosworth’s biography of Montgomery Clift. He then worked at Bantam Books, where he helped launch its hardcover division by acquiring such books as Albert Goldman’s biography of John Lennon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s autobiography. Next, he worked as a senior editor at Esquire Magazine, editing authors ranging from Alan Furst and Bobbie Ann Mason to Michael Kinsley and Joel Kotkin. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he was West Coast editor of Simon and Schuster, a consulting editor at the Los Angeles Times, and editor in chief of California Magazine.

Writing career

In 1988 Stone began a career as a writer and ghostwriter. He has written extensively for magazines, including New York, Esquire, GQ, and Vogue, but eventually dedicated his livelihood to books. His first ghostwritten project was for the Nicaraguan politician Arturo Cruz Jr., Memoirs of a Counter-Revolutionary. Since then Stone has written more than forty books with a diverse group of people, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, former Yahoo! Chief Solutions Officer Tim Sanders, medical director of Canyon Ranch Resorts Mark Liponis, CNN executive vice-president Gail Evans, and TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie . Stone has written many other books under his own name, including, The Secret of People Who Never Get Sick, which has been translated into more than 30 languages; and Little Girl Fly Away, which he co-produced as a television movie. An avid watch collector, Stone appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning discussing his book, The Watch, the definitive book of men's wristwatches. The book was thoroughly updated and published in a new edition in 2018 with a new co-author, Hodinkee.com managing editor Stephen Pulvirent. Stone has also written a number of instant books for various publishers on presidential politics, including the #1 Washington Post bestseller ' and the #1 Los Angeles Times'' bestseller '. Stone serves on the board of several not-for-profit organizations, including Surgeons Over Seas, which saves lives in developing countries by improving surgical care, and Truth Will Out, a non-profit think tank and educational organization that defends the LGBT community against anti-gay misinformation.

Plant-based writing

In 2006 Stone, a vegan, met firefighter Rip Esselstyn and the two of them collaborated on the hugely successful book about a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based diet, The Engine 2 Diet, which in turn was the basis of a product line at Whole Foods Market. They then co-wrote two bestselling sequels. Under his own name, Stone wrote the companion book to the documentary Forks Over Knives, a film which also explores plant-based diets that was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Over the last decade Stone has ghostwritten, co-written, or authored numerous other books on plant-based diets and their relationship to health, animal protection, and the environment, many of which have been national bestsellers. These include Living the Farm Sanctuary Life, with Farm Sanctuary President and Co-founder Gene Baur; How Not To Die with Dr.Michael Greger ; Mercy for Animals ; Animalkind ; Eat for the Planet and Eat for the Planet Cookbook ; and Rescue Dogs, with undercover animal investigator Pete Paxton, among other books.

Works