Jay O'Connell is the author of, most recently, TRAIN ROBBER'S DAUGHTER: THE MELODRAMATIC LIFE OF EVA EVANS, 1876-1970. His first book--CO-OPERATIVE DREAMS: A HISTORY OF THE KAWEAH COLONY--is considered the definitive study of that late 19th-century utopian community in present-day Sequoia National Park. He is also the co-author of A STRENGTH BORN OF GIANTS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DR. FOREST GRUNIGEN, the biography of an accomplished California osteopathic physician. He has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles on regional and California history and for several years wrote a local history column for THE KAWEAH COMMONWEALTH newspaper. He served as Executive Director of THE EVANS & SONTAG PROJECT, producing a permanent museum exhibit for the Tulare County Museum and bringing to the stage, for the first time in over a century, the blood-and-thunder melodrama EVANS AND SONTAG: THE VISALIA BANDITS at the historic Fox Theatre in downtown Visalia, California.When not researching and writing about California history, Jay O'Connell works in the television industry as a production manager for Warner Bros. Television. Some of the television series he has worked on include THE BIG BANG THEORY (CBS), THE CLASS (CBS), GOOD MORNING, MIAMI (NBC), and HANGIN' WITH MR. COOPER (ABC). He is currently researching his next book, a narrative history entitled THE BATLES OVER MINERAL KING: WALT DISNEY, THE SIERRA CLUB, AND A SMALL CALIFORNIA TOWN and pondering a memoir called CONFESSIONS OF A NON-PRACTICING ATHEIST (so far, it just a catchy title....hope no one steals it.)An avid Dodger fan, O'Connell lives in the Los Angeles area (the earthquake-evoking community of Northridge, to be specific) with his wife, Susie, his two sons, J.P. and Colin, and various dogs, rabbits, chickens and cats.