John Elder Robison
| John Elder Robison | |
|---|---|
Robison in May 2011
|
|
| Born |
August 13, 1957 Athens, Georgia, U.S. |
| Occupation | Memoirist |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 2007–present |
| Subject | Memoir, autism |
| Notable works | Look Me in the Eye (2007), Be Different (2011), Switched On (2016) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Augusten Burroughs (brother) |
| Website | |
| www |
|
John Elder Robison (born August 13, 1957) is the author of the 2007 memoir Look Me in the Eye, detailing his life with undiagnosed Asperger syndrome and savant abilities, and of three other books. Robison has had several careers. In the 1970s he worked as an engineer in the music business where he is best known for creating the signature special effects guitars played by the band KISS. In the 1980s Robison worked for electronics manufacturers Milton Bradley Company (electronic games), Simplex (fire alarms and building control), and ISOREG (power conditioning systems). Robison wrote his first book at age 49.
Robison was born in Athens, Georgia, while his parents were attending the University of Georgia. He is the son of poet Margaret Robison and the late John G. Robison (1935–2005), former head of the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Robison dropped out of high school in the tenth grade.
He married three times and has one son.
He is the elder brother of memoirist Augusten Burroughs, who also wrote about his childhood in the memoir Running with Scissors.
He was self-diagnosed with Asperger's at 40.
In 2011, Robison was featured on an episode of Ingenious Minds, which discussed some of the transcranial magnetic stimulation experiments he underwent to improve his social cognition.
In Look Me in the Eye, Robison describes growing up with no diagnosis of his autism, but aware that he was different, and how he was first diagnosed by a therapist friend when he was 40 years old. After writing that book, Robison became active in the planning of autism research, and in autism advocacy.
...
Wikipedia