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| A veteran Dallas author and screenwriter, Harry Preston is originally from South Africa, where he began writing children's
stories and books while still in his teens, moving on to adult articles and short stories for major South African
newspapers and magazines. He moved to the U.S. in 1948, settled in Dallas and began writing and directing several of the
low budget films for which Dallas has become somewhat notorious.
While news editor at Channel 8, the ABC station in Dallas, he wrote TORNADO, a documentary on the devastating tornado in Dallas in 1957, which won the Sylvania Award. He wrote several Dallas television series, notably “Spotlight on Texas” sponsored by Southwestern Bell Telephone, as well as writing many Viewpoint columns in the Dallas Morning News. In 1959 he moved to California and joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios as analyst and rewrite man. The writers’ strike in 1962 forced him to move east to join the famous Jam Handy Studios in Detroit, where one of his commercials (for “Religion in American Life”) was nominated for an industry award. The Detroit riots in 1967 chased him back to the West Coast where he returned to his first love -- authoring fiction and non-fiction books. “Everything a Teenager Wants to Know About Sex and Should” (Books for Better Living) got rave reviews and went into seven printings. Among his many novels are 14 of the “Vanessa Cartwright” romance novels published by McFadden. Following a year's visit back to Cape Town in 1971, he wrote a supernatural horror tale set in South Africa -- “Queen of Darkness” (Manor Books) -- which got excellent reviews. During the Seventies, he also wrote many training films for the United States Air Force at Norton AFB in California. In 1976 Mr. Preston moved back to Dallas and now works closely with the Texas film and literary communities. In 1989 he received a Life Achievement Award at the Corpus Christi Film Festival for his contribution to the Texas film industry. Since 1990 he has taught screenwriting at Richland College in Dallas and actively markets scripts and books through his literary agency - Stanton & Associates Literary Agency. To date, his credits include over 90 published books and over 300 films of all types from features to industrials, commercials, documentaries and training films.
In 2002 his biography of former Broadway and movie star Thelma White, titled THELMA WHO? -- was published by Scarecrow Press and was selected as one of the top ten best books of 2002 by CLASSIC IMAGES, the national movie magazine. In 2003, Mr. Preston's latest novels FACES OF ANGELS and SHOT IN DALLAS were published. Many of Mr. Preston’s books may be found and ordered on Amazon.com on the Internet. Harry Preston Stanton & Associates Literary Agency
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