Shelby yastrow biography

In 1986, Shelby Yastrow, then an executive for McDonald’s, was on a flight to Seattle with a fellow Chicago attorney whom he had commissioned to aid in a McDonald’s legal case.

The talk between the two lawyers soon shifted to a manuscript that Yastrow had been working on to pass the time in hotel rooms. Yastrow’s companion eventually read the work in progress and promptly gave him some writerly advice: “You really are good, but you don't know a damn thing about writing fiction.”

The advice would have sounded insulting if it hadn’t come from future bestselling author and practicing lawyer Scott Turow, who had, at that time, just sold his own debut novel, Presumed Innocent, which was later adapted onto the big screen in 1990 and starred Harrison Ford and Brian Dennehy.

Turow offered Yastrow more writing advice, Yastrow listened, and eventually Un