David E. Sumner

David E. Sumner is the author of Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football's Greatest Pioneer (McFarland Books, 2021). He received a Platzman Memorial Fellowship from the University of Chicago in 2018 to write the biography of Amos Alonzo Stagg. He has also written: Fumbled Call: The Bear Bryant-Wally Butts Football Scandal that Split the Supreme Court and Changed American Libel Law (McFarland 2018); John Thrasher: Georgia Pioneer, Politician, and Philanthropist (2017); Feature and Magazine Writing: Action, Angle and Anecdotes, (2013, co-authored with Holly G. Miller), and The Magazine Century: American Magazines in 20th Century (2010). He is currently writing a second edition of The Magazine Century which will be published in 2023 by Peter Lang Publishing. He has written hundreds of articles for newspapers, magazines, websites and academic journals. He has a PhD from the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Sumner taught magazine writing and publishing at Ball State University in Indiana from 1990 to 2015 when he retired to write fulltime. He lives in Anderson, Indiana, with his wife, Elise. When he's not writing, he is hiking or volunteering at his church.