Richard Panchyk
Richard Panchyk knew that he wanted to be a writer by the time he was seven years old. He sold his first "book," a four-page handwritten trivia booklet written on a folded piece of loose-leaf paper in runny blue ink, to a third-grade classmate for a nickel. A proud native of Elmhurst, Queens, Richard attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, where a class on New York ignited his interest in the area's fascinating history. He has published a total of thirty-three books, including nine titles on New York City and five on Long Island. He published his first book with The History Press in 2007.