James Patterson, author and creator of the character Alex Cross, was born in Newburgh, New York, on March 22, 1947. He graduated from Manhattan College in 1969 and received a M. A. from Vanderbilt University in 1970. Patterson's first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was written while he was working in a mental institution and was rejected by twenty-six publishers before being published and winning the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery. Patterson is best known as the creator of Alex Cross, the police psychologist hero of such novels as Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls. Cross has been portrayed on the silver screen by Morgan Freeman.