After dropping out of high school, he worked in the music business where he created sound effects and electronic devices, the best known of which were the signature guitars he built for KISS. Robison grew up in the 1960s before the breadth of the autism spectrum was fully understood, so he was not diagnosed until age 40. He served two terms on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee of the US Department of Health and Human Services and other boards for the Dept of Defense, National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. Robison is the Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and an advisor to the Neurodiversity Institute at Landmark College in Putney, VT.

John’s books are sold in a dozen languages in over 65 countries.

Above all, you'll marvel at the way Robison overcame the restrictions of Asperger's to gain the connection he always craved: as a husband and father.John Elder Robison is an autistic adult author of Switched On Raising Cubby Look Me in the Eye, My Life with Asperger’s and Be Different - Adventures of a Free-range Aspergian. He also provides a fascinating angle on the younger brother he left at the mercy of their nutty parents - the boy who would grow up to write Running with Scissors. A born storyteller, Robison takes us inside the head of a boy whom teachers and other adults regarded as defective and who still has a peculiar aversion to using people's given names (he calls his wife Unit Two). Look Me In The Eye is Robison's moving and blackly funny story of growing up with Asperger's syndrome at a time when the diagnosis didn't even exist. It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist told Robison he had the form of autism called Asperger's syndrome, transforming the way Robison saw himself - and the world.

Small wonder Robison gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on. No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father, who spent the evenings drinking. as heartfelt a memoir as one could find, utterly unspoiled, uninfluenced, and original.' - Augusten BurroughsĪ New York Times and Australian bestseller, Look Me In The Eye tells of a child's heartbreaking desperation to connect with others, and his struggle to pass as 'normal' - a struggle that would continue into adulthood.īy the time he was a teenager, John Elder Robison's odd habits - such as a tendency to obsessively dismantle radios and dig five-foot holes (and stick his little brother in them) - had earned him the label 'social deviant'. as sweet and funny and sad and true and heartfelt a memoir as one could find, utterly unspoiled, uninfluenced, and original.' - from the Foreword by Augusten Burroughs

John elder robison books