Tristan Egolf

Tristan Egolf was born in Spain in 1971. As a young adolescent, he moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from Hempfield High School. He moved to Philadelphia after graduation and attended Temple University. After dropping out of college to play in a punk band, Tristan traveled around the country and lived for a time in an Indiana coal town on the Kentucky border, where the idea for his first book was born. He fled Dale, Indiana and was delayed in New Orleans; lower Manhattan; coastal Massachusetts and Oxford, Mississippi (where's he was wanted until his death on an explosives charge). Along the way, he worked as a dog-walker, a trash-truck cleaner, a projectionist, a janitor, a dishwasher and a boxing cornerman. He began writing Lord of the Barnyard busking around Europe. Overseas, he lived in Vienna, Amsterdam, London and Paris. Lord of the Barnyard was discovered in France and, after publication, was translated into scores of languages due to its popularity. Tristan moved to New York City, where he wrote his second book, Skirt and the Fiddle. He finished work on it, and in 2002, he moved back to Lancaster upon its publication. No doubt during his formulative years Lancaster's sizeable Amish population helped Tristan visualize the theme for his final book, Kornwolf. As he worked on the book, he met the love of his life, Kara Dimitris, and in 2004, she gave birth to their daughter, Orla Story Egolf. Before Kornwolf was published, Tristan wrote a rock opera involving Led Zepplin and John Fogerty. Tristan died in May, 2005 and, using his notes, his family finalized publication of his final book. Before his death, Tristan was a cult icon. Kornwolf cemented his status as a legend.