Judith Rascoe

A niece of critic Burton Rascoe, who often gave her television scripts to read, Judith Rascoe was born and raised in California, attending Stanford University's writing program under Wallace Stegner. Early in her career, she caught the notice of literary critic Mark Schorer, who noted in Esquire magazine that she was one of the most interesting young writers of the early 1970s. Spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bristol and taught school in England for a while. Returned to the US and studied for a brief period at Harvard; she also worked as a reader for Atlantic Monthly at this time. Eventually settled at Yale University as a fiction instructor. Producer Joseph Strick read her story "A Lot of Cowboys" and asked her to write him a screenplay, which became Road Movie, The (1974). Author Robert Stone was so impressed with her literary abilities that he recommended her as screenwriter for the adaption of his novel DOG SOLDIERS, which became Who'll Stop the Rain (1978).