James Reston Jr. (March 8, 1941 – July 19, 2023) was an American journalist, documentarian and author of political and historical fiction and non-fiction.
[1][2] He wrote about the Vietnam War, the Jonestown Massacre, civil rights, the impeachment of Richard Nixon, and the September 11 attacks.
[4][2] His mother, Sarah Jane "Sally" Fulton, was a journalist, photographer, writer, and publisher who joined her husband on foreign assignments in Europe and Asia during World War II.
[1][5][2] His maternal grandfather, William J. Fulton, served two terms as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois.
[1][6][2] At UNC, he was an All-South soccer player and still retains the single-game scoring record for the university—five goals against North Carolina State University on October 18, 1962.
[1] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Reston wrote numerous pieces about amnesty for Vietnam deserters, people who had left the United States rather than serving in the war.
[13] In 2005, Reston tried to stop production of Ridley Scott's film Kingdom of Heaven, claiming half of the script was based on the first part of his book Warriors of God.
[15] Reston's book was previously optioned by Phoenix Pictures, who had unsuccessfully pitched the concept to Scott as a potential project.
"[16] In 2016, Reston's 1977 book, The Innocence of Joan Little: A Southern Mystery, was optioned by Paulist Productions to possibly develop as a limited series.
[2] In 1983, Reston received the Prix Italia and the Dupont–Columbia Award for radio documentary Father Cares: the Last of Jonestown on NPR.