Robert Strauss is the author of “The Final Founder: John Marshall,” an unconventional biography with several often-quirky essays on American history inspired by Marshall’s life. His previous book, “Worst. President. Ever.,” a biography of James Buchanan, won the Gold Medal for Biography from the Independent Publishers association. Strauss was a reporter at Sports Illustrated, a feature writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, a news and sports producer for KYW-TV in Philadelphia, and a TV critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Asbury Park Press. For the last two decades, he has taught Advanced Creative Non-Fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania and run its journalism internship program. He has also freelanced in that time, his biggest client being the New York Times, where he has had more than 1000 bylines. His next project will be a collective biography of the founders of the Confederacy, as with the Marshall book, with attendant essays interspersed. Strauss is a graduate of Carleton College and attended the University of California graduate journalism school. He lives in Haddonfield, NJ, just eight miles from Independence Hall.