Born in 1940, Thomas Harris grew up in Rich, Mississippi where his father farmed for a living. After attending Baylor University in Texas, he worked as a journalist for Associated Press in New York covering the crime beat. On his own time he wrote macabre short stories that appeared in True and Argosy magazines.

In 1973, Harris and two other AP writers concocted a story of terrorists bombing the Super Bowl football game with a Goodyear blimp. The trio sold the idea to Putnam and split the advance, but Harris bought out the others soon after writing began. Published in 1975, the film adaptation of Black Sunday appeared two years later under the same title. Disguising his movie cameras with the CBS television logo, the director shot footage during the 1976 Super Bowl game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Proceeds from the book and movie permitted Harris to quit his job and concentrate on writing fiction.

In the fall of 1979, Harris returned to the Mississippi Delta for eighteen months during his father's last illness. A neighbor loaned him the use of a shotgun house in the middle of a cotton field where Harris created a new subgenre of serial killer thrillers. Red Dragon (1981) introduces the character of Hannibal Lecter, an imprisoned cannibal prevailed upon by his FBI captor to assist in the hunt for "The Tooth Fairy" killer. Harris sold the paperback rights to Bantam Books for one million dollars. On display is a signed advance reading copy of this paperback edition which compares Red Dragon to two other Bantam bestsellers later adapted to the screen — Jaws and The Exorcist. Michael Mann wrote and directed the 1986 film version of Harris' novel titled Manhunter, which performed poorly at the box office.

The film sequel — The Silence of the Lambs (1991) starring Anthony Hopkins as Lecter and Jody Foster as a novice FBI agent — earned $100 million dollars in its first year and saved the movie company Orion from bankruptcy. The film also achieved critical success, sweeping the "Big Five" at the Academy Awards: "Best Screenplay," "Best Director," "Best Picture," "Best Actor," and "Best Actress." In fact, Hopkins won the Oscar with the shortest amount of screen time on record (sixteen minutes).

In the "Acknowledgments" of his 1999 book Hannibal, Harris thanks the staff of the Carnegie Public Library in Coahoma County, Mississippi for their research assistance. Anthony Hopkins reprises the title character for the 2001 film, which set an opening box office sales record for an R-rated film. On display is the MGM/Universal Pictures pressbook.

Hopkins plays Lecter yet again in the 2002 remake Red Dragon which more closely follows Harris's book than had the earlier Manhunter. Currently in the works is a film with the working title Young Hannibal: Behind the Mask. Harris himself has written the screenplay which is a prequel tracing Lecter's life from childhood through his capture and imprisonment.