Stanford to Niger and back

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Gene received his masters in English Literature from Harvard University before joining the Peace Corps, where he spent two years in the Republic of Niger in West Africa. Returning home to New York, he became an editor 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 Magazine, 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.

Physicists and doctors

In 1988 Stone began a career as a writer and ghostwriter. He wrote for many national magazines, including New York, Esquire, GQ, and Vogue, but eventually dedicated his time to books. He has ghost- or co-written more than thirty books with a diverse group of people, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, former Yahoo! Chief Solutions Officer Tim Sanders, Canyon Ranch Resorts medical directors Mark Liponis and Mark Hyman, CNN executive vice-president Gail Evans, and TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie.

Gene has also written many bestselling books under his own name, including The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick, which has been translated into more than thirty languages. He co-produced another of his books, Little Girl Fly Away, as a made-for-television movie. An avid watch collector, he also wrote the definitive book on men’s wristwatches, The Watch, was updated and republished in 2018. In recent years he’s been particularly interested in travel watches, as noted by the leading watch site, Hodinkee.

Gene shares with Martha Stewart some of his secrets for never getting sick.

Presidents and Vice-Presidents

Stone has written four instant books on politics. One of them, The Bush Survival Bible, was written in five days and became a national bestseller, hitting the #1 spot on The Washington Post bestseller list. Stone’s most recent instant book, The Trump Survival Guide, was also a national bestseller, reaching #1 on The Los Angeles Times bestseller list.

Plants and animals

In 2006 Gene met Austin firefighter Rip Esselstyn and the two collaborated on a hugely successful book about a whole foods, plant-based diet, Engine 2 Diet, which in turn was the basis of a product line at Whole Foods Markets. They then co-wrote a sequel, My Beef With Meat, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Under his own name, Gene wrote the companion book to the documentary about plant-based diets, Forks Over Knives. It, too, was a #1 New York Times bestseller.

Since then Gene, a vegan, has ghostwritten, co-written, or authored numerous 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); and Rescue Dogs, with undercover animal investigator Pete Paxton, among other books.

In the community

Gene serves on the Board of Advisors to Groceryships, a California-based scholarship for groceries which provides families the money to buy a plant-based diet for six months, and then provides a comprehensive program of education and support to ensure the nutritional program continues successfully.
He also is on the Board of Advisors of Ready for Rescue, a New York City-based animal rescue group dedicated to saving at risk animals with a focus on cats and dogs who are suffering in the New York City shelter system.
Gene also serves on the board of several not-for-profit organizations, including Surgeons Over Seas, which saves lives in developing countries by improving surgical care, and Truth Wins Out, a non-profit think tank and educational organization that defends the LGBT community against anti-gay misinformation.