Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls (born April 21, 1960) is an American writer and journalist widely known as former gossip columnist for MSNBC.com — and author of The Glass Castle, a memoir of the nomadic family life of her childhood, which stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for 261 weeks. 2Early life and education Walls was born on April 21, 1960, in Phoenix, Arizona, to Rex Walls (deceased 1994 of heart attack) and Rose Mary Walls. Walls has two sisters, Lori and Maureen, and one brother, Brian. Walls' family life was rootless, with the family shuttling from Phoenix, Arizona, California (including a brief stay in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco), Battle Mountain, Nevada, and Welch, West Virginia, with periods of homelessness. When they finally landed in Rex’s Appalachian hometown, Welch, W.Va., the family lived in a three-room house without plumbing or heat, infested with snakes and rats. Walls moved to New York at age 17 to join her sister Lori. She finished high school in the city, and with grants, loans, scholarships and a year spent answering phones at a Wall Street law firm, put herself through Barnard College and graduated in 1984 with honors. 2Personal life Walls married Eric Goldberg in 1988; they divorced in 1996. She now lives outside Culpeper, Virginia, with her second husband, journalist John J. Taylor. They live on a 205-acre farm, with her mother, Rose Mar