Gene Stone grew up in the Westchester County suburb of Pelham, New York, the son of lawyer Henry Stone and author Babette Rosmond, and the brother of James Stone, founder and CEO of Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford and receiving his masters in English Literature from Harvard, Stone joined the Peace Corps, where he spent two years in the Republic of Niger. Returning to New York, he then started a career as an editor. He began at Harcourt Brace, where he edited a wide range of books including Patricia Bosworth's biography of Montgomery Clift. He then worked at Bantam Books, where he helped launch its hardcover division by acquiring such books as Albert Goldman's biography of John Lennon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's autobiography. Next, he worked as a senior editor at Esquire, editing authors ranging from Alan Furst and Bobbie Ann Mason to Michael Kinsley and Joel Kotkin. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he was West Coast editor of Simon & Schuster, a consulting editor at the Los Angeles Times, and editor in chief of California Magazine.
In 1988 Stone began a career as a writer and ghostwriter. He has written extensively for magazines, including New YorkEsquire, GQ, and Vogue, but eventually dedicated his livelihood to books. His first ghostwritten project was for the Nicaraguan politician Arturo Cruz Jr., Memoirs of a Counter-Revolutionary (1988). Since then Stone has written more than forty books with a diverse group of people, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, former Yahoo! Chief Solutions Officer Tim Sanders, medical director of Canyon Ranch Resorts Mark Liponis, CNN executive vice-president Gail Evans, and TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie (The #1 New York Times bestseller Start Something That Matters).
Stone has written many other books under his own name, including, The Secret of People Who Never Get Sick, which has been translated into more than 30 languages; and Little Girl Fly Away, which he co-produced as a television movie.[1] An avid watch collector, Stone appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning (October 29, 2006) discussing his book, The Watch, the definitive book of men's wristwatches. The book was thoroughly updated and published in a new edition in 2018 with a new co-author, Hodinkee.com managing editor Stephen Pulvirent.[2] Stone has also written a number of instant books for various publishers on presidential politics, including the #1 Washington Post bestseller The Bush Survival Bible and the #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller The Trump Survival Guide.[3] Stone serves on the board of several not-for-profit organizations, including Surgeons Over Seas (SOS), which saves lives in developing countries by improving surgical care, and Truth Will Out (TWO), a non-profit think tank and educational organization that defends the LGBT community against anti-gay misinformation. He has also written about his own experiences with conversion therapy and sexual surrogacy for New York Magazine, (The Tiger Cure).[1]
In 2006 Stone, a vegan, met firefighter Rip Esselstyn,[4] and the two of them collaborated on the hugely successful book about a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based diet, The Engine 2 Diet, which in turn was the basis of a product line at Whole Foods Market.[5] They then co-wrote two bestselling sequels. Under his own name, Stone wrote the companion book to the documentary Forks Over Knives, a film which also explores plant-based diets that was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Over the last fifteen years Stone has ghostwritten, co-written, or authored many other books on plant-based diets and their relationship to health, animal protection, and the environment, many of which have been national bestsellers. These include Living the Farm Sanctuary Life, with Farm Sanctuary President and Co-founder Gene Baur; How Not To Die with Dr. Michael Greger (which was followed up with a cookbook); Mercy for Animals (with Mercy for Animals founder Nathan Runkle); Animalkind (co-authored with PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk); Eat for the Planet and Eat for the Planet Cookbook (co-authored with www.onegreenplanet.com founder Nil Zacharias); Rescue Dogs, with undercover animal investigator Pete Paxton; Healthy at Last, with Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City;[6] and 72 Reasons to be Vegan with Kathy Freston.
1997 Dr Fulford's Touch of Life (co-writer with osteopath Robert C. Fulford), Gallery, ISBN9780671556013
1998 The Halo Effect: How Volunteering Can Lead to a More Fulfilling Life and a Better Career (co-written with Outward Bound CEO John Reynolds), Golden Books Adult Publishing, ISBN9780307440716
2000 Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman (Ghostwriter with CNN executive VP Gail Evans), Broadway, ISBN9780767904636
2002 Kindred Spirits: How the Remarkable Bond Between Humans and Animals Can Change the Way we Live, (Ghostwriter for veterinarian Allen Shoen), Broadway, ISBN9780767904315
2002 Love is the Killer App (Ghostwriter for Yahoo! Chief Solutions Officer Tim Sanders), Crown Business, ISBN9781400046836
2003 UltraPrevention (Ghostwriter for Mark Hyman and Mark Liponis- Medical Directors of Canyon Ranch), Scribners, ISBN9780743448833
2007 Ultralongevity: The Seven Step Program for a Younger, Healthier You (co-writer with Canyon Ranch Medical Director Mark Liponis), Little, Brown and Company, ISBN9780316017299
2007 Duck! The Dick Cheney Survival Bible, Villard, ISBN9780812977295
2008 Saving the World at Work (Ghostwriter for Yahoo! CSO Tim Sanders), Crown Business, ISBN9780385523578
2009 The Engine 2 Diet (written with Rip Esselstyn), Grand Central, ISBN9780446506687
2010 The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick, Workman, ISBN9780761165811
2011 Start Something That Matters (Ghostwriter for TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie), Random House, ISBN9780812981445
2011 Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health (Editor), The Experiment ISBN9781615190454
2013 Finding the Next Steve Jobs (Co-author with Atari and Chuck E. Cheese Founder Nolan Bushnell), Simon & Schuster, ISBN9781476759821
2013 My Beef With Meat (Ghostwriter for Rip Esselstyn), Grand Central, ISBN9781455509362
2014 The Awareness (co-written with Jon Doyle), Stone, ISBN9780615944647
