After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.Īfter unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the 'Police Notes' section of The Wellesley Townsman. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. (Richard went on to write The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, which tells you all you need to know about what it was like to grow up with him as a brother.)Īs they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets.

Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle the loss of his two front teeth to his brother Richard's fist and various broken bones, also incurred in dust-ups with Richard. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school-he was almost immediately expelled-he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Douglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley.

Fever dream pendergast