Robert Spencer Knotts

After five years of writing and more than 40 years of research, Knotts in 2019 completed his nonfiction book, "Beyond Me: Dissecting Ego To Find The Innate Love At Humanity's Core (A New Psychology As Philosophy)." The 600-page book offers a penetrating new view of humanity -- and an original philosophy intended to enable individuals to transcend an ego-driven life. More recently, he released his first audio-only book, "Fabled Lives: Simple Stories You Need For Living In A Complex World." Published in late 2021, the book features a dozen fables for adults written and narrated by Knotts, each with original music composed and performed by him. And August 2022 saw the publication of his book, "Songs of a Certain Humanity," an anthology of poems, lyrics and fables. Knotts began writing his first book in 1995, the novel, "Hard News." His 27 books to date include 23 books for young readers, both nonfiction and fiction. The nonfiction works largely have centered around science, history and sports. His publishers include Children's Press, Heinemann Library, Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers and Sports Illustrated for Kids. These books appeared under the name Bob Knotts or under a pseudonym.

Since 2000 Knotts has written five dramas, many exploring the psychological origins of social problems. These dramas include a one-act play with music about teen suicide, “Never Nothin’ Again No More,” commissioned and produced by Miami’s famed Coconut Grove Playhouse in 2001. He also has written the full-length play “In Mordant Whispers,” which had its first public reading at South Florida's award-winning GableStage in March 2006 and “Empath 52 Equals You,” perhaps the first fully interactive narrative drama written for the Internet. In 2006, his short comedy, "This (Bleeping) World," received its first staged reading at the Studio Theatre of Wellington in Wellington, Florida.

Since 2005 Knotts has written more than 2,000 blogs and created/hosted more than 130 podcasts professionally. These include a broad-ranging blog that he wrote twice a week from 2005 - 2015 for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau about his personal life in South Florida. He also wrote a fictional weekly kids blog for the GFLCVB during three summer seasons and has created blogs for corporations and other organizations. In addition, Knotts writes regular blogs and hosts monthly podcasts for his nonprofit, the Humanity Project, and maintains the group's presence on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and YouTube.

His poem entitled, "September 11, 2001," is included in the Artists Registry at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City. The piece also was selected for the massive 9/11 sculpture created in Greensboro, North Carolina, a nationally recognized project built with girders from the World Trade Center. This poem has received praise from Nobel Peace Prize laureate and author, Elie Wiesel. Knotts also has published and performed his poetry.

Starting in 1995, Knotts has written often for top national publications that have included Sports Illustrated, USA Weekend, Cigar Aficionado, Travel & Leisure, the New York Times, the Humanist and Reader's Digest. And he served from 1999 to 2004 as contributing editor at Newsweek’s travel magazine, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel.

Formerly, Knotts was one of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's main writers and reporters. His extensive investigative reporting at the paper included a year-long expose of air bag injuries written five years before the federal government acknowledged the problem. Knotts' reports appeared in newspapers and on TV news programs across the country. His consumer investigations also shut down dozens of fraudulent South Florida businesses and directly resulted in the arrest and successful prosecution of a British national known in England as "King Con," a notorious con artist who provided unsafe treatments to AIDS and cancer patients from around the world. This case became the basis for his novel, "Hard News." The Sun-Sentinel twice nominated Knotts' reporting for the Pulitzer Prize.

Before this, Knotts was for several years a prominent on-air TV and radio reporter/anchor in Burlington, Vermont for CBS affiliates, where he broke many major stories about politics, development, airline safety and other issues. His beats included covering Bernie Sanders and Burlington City Hall from 1983 - 1987. He also has covered classical music and the arts as a freelance correspondent for Vermont's largest newspapers and hosted his own weekly classical music radio program at the University of Vermont's radio station.

Earlier, Knotts published fiction and poetry in national literary magazines such as The Poet and had a radio play produced in the San Francisco Bay area.

Knotts writes and performs a wide variety of original music and has composed a two-movement symphony, "A Symphony of Some Humanity." He also writes and performs music for his monthly podcasts on the Humanity Project website at www.thehumanityproject.com as well as for the organization's programs for youth and parents. And he was commissioned in 2007 by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau to compose and perform the jazz piece used as a theme for the bureau's podcast.

In addition, he composed and performed a variety of original music for his 2001 stage play, "Never Nothin' Again No More." Knotts also has written both lyrics and music for many songs. He is a lifelong drummer and percussionist and has played frequently as leader, member or guest artist in blues, rock and jazz bands. Along with drums, Knotts has often performed publicly on chromatic and blues harmonicas, keyboards and Dobro slide guitar.
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Knotts was born on December 9 in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to the Detroit area, he has lived in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Switzerland (briefly), Cleveland, San Francisco and, for many years, Vermont.

He is a licensed race car driver and avid traveler who has visited 53 countries on six continents. Knotts is divorced, with no children, and has lived in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area for more than 30 years.