John Whitman (author)

John Whitman is an American author and martial arts instructor. He is the founder of the Krav Maga Alliance and the former president of Krav Maga Worldwide.

Early life

Whitman was born on February 13, 1967, and attended the University of California, Berkeley, from 1985 to 1989, where he graduated with a B.A. in literature. He also attended Boston University from 1990 to 1991, graduating with an M.A. in Creative Writing.

He was the victim of several violent encounters in his youth, which involved having a gun pointed at him and being attacked by two separate people, which inspired him to learn self-defense. He attended his first Krav Maga demonstration in October 1991.

Krav Maga

Whitman founded the Krav Maga Alliance, and he has been teaching Krav Maga in 1994, and served as president of Krav Maga Worldwide for eight years. He also became the first person in the world to be given a Senior Instructor degree from the Wingate Institute. As well as teaching Krav Maga to civilians and military personnel, Whitman helped to develop training programs to be utilised by other instructors of the martial art. He has also written two books about the martial art, and continues to teach Krav Maga.

He has instructor degrees from the Krav Maga Association of America, Krav Maga Worldwide, and Wingate University.

Whitman was awarded a sixth Degree Black Belt in Krav Maga in 2017. He also helped to develop the Krav Maga Pro app. He has also served as the CEO of Focus Self Defense and Fitness.

Writing

Whitman worked as the Executive Editor of Time Warner Audio books from 1991 to 1999. He also wrote the scripts for various ''Star Wars'' radio dramas, and was also responsible for editing Brian Daley's scripts after Daley's death.

From 1997 to 1998, he also wrote the '' Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear'' series, which was a series of young readers horror books set within the ''Star Wars'' universe. The series was inspired by the success of ''Goosebumps'', and was originally planned to last for six books, before Lucasfilm asked Whitman to expand it to twelve. Whitman was asked to include the character Mammon Hoole, who had appeared in ''Star Wars'' books written by other authors, as a key character in ''Galaxy of Fear''. Although most of the other characters in the ''Galaxy of Fear'' series were created by Whitman, the books also included appearances from characters from the ''Star Wars'' films. Whitman also had to gain approval from George Lucas to kill off the character Dr. Evazan.

Other ''Star Wars'' books written by Whitman include ''A Droid's Tale'', ''Luke Skywalker's Race Against Time'', and ''The Greatest Battles'', and he wrote dialogue for the '' Droid Works'' video game. He has also written various books based on the '' 24'' television series, as well as adaptations of ''Digimon'' and ''The Mummy Returns''.

In 2023, Whitman returned to writing and published ''Disunion: Book One - The Mantiz Gambit'', the first book in a new science fiction series.

Bibliography

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: Eaten Alive''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: City of the Dead''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: Planet Plague''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: The Nightmare Machine''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: Ghost of the Jedi''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: Army of Terror''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: The Brain Spiders''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: The Swarm''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: Spore''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: The Doomsday Ship''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: Clones''

''Star Wars Galaxy of Fear: The Hunger''

'' Star Wars: Droid Works'' (video game)

''Digimon: Adventures on File Island''

''Digimon: Leomon's Challenge''

''The Mummy Returns'' (Junior Novelization)

''Planet of the Apes'' (Junior Novelization)

''Planet of the Apes: Force''

''Planet of the Apes: Resistance''

''24 Declassified: Cat's Claw''

''24 Declassified: Chaos Theory''

''24: Trinity''

''24: Veto Power''

''Complete Krav Maga : The Ultimate Guide to over 230 Self-Defense and Combative Techniques''

''Black Belt Krav Maga: Advanced Training In Krav Maga''

''Disunion: Book One - The Mantiz Gambit''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitman, John
American children's writers
American science fiction writers
Martial arts trainers
Krav Maga practitioners
Boston University alumni
UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
1967 births
Living people