Patricia Nell Warren (1936 – )

Patricia Nell Warren is a very well known and respected LGBT author. Her most celebrated book is, The Front Runner, which was first published in 1974 and has gone on to sell over 10 million copies in 10 languages world-wide.

Warren was born in 1936 and grew up on a cattle ranch near Deer Lodge, Montana. She loved and had an affinity for sports, especially track but Montana in the 1940’s had very limited resources for girl’s sports. Marathon running became a sport in the 1960’s but was still limited to men, even in more liberal parts of the United States. So Warren and a female friend snuck into the Boston Marathon in 1969. Though physically exhausted, she finished the race in 4 hours and 20 minutes. In 1972, women were officially allowed to run in the Boston Marathon.

Warren started writing The Front Runner in the early 1970’s about a lesbian coach and one of her female runners who became lovers but changed it to a gay male coach and one of his male runners when she discovered there were no women coaches in track at that time. When the book was released in 1974 it immediately began climbing the New York Times bestseller list. Warren has been thanked by many gay and lesbian athletes throughout the years for writing the book.

Warren sold the film rights to The Front Runner back in the 1970’s and Paul Newman was slated to star as the coach but nothing came of it. As the rights were sold to different parties throughout the years without the movie ever being made, Warren went to court to get the film rights back which happened in 1997. She is still trying to get the movie made but is having difficulty getting funding or getting a major studio to back the film due to the risk of telling a story about an out gay male coach and his relationship and eventual marriage to one of his gay male athletes. But she still pushes on with the project today.

Warren has written several other books and also works on free speech and issues confronting youth. She is single and lives in Los Angeles. You can contact Patricia Nell Warren at patriciawarren@aol.com.