Despite his numerous accomplishments, J.D. Vance remained a low-profile figure until the release of his book, Hillbilly Elegy, in June of 2016. As he himself writes in the first pages of the book, he had until then "accomplished nothing great in [his] life," but he declares he wrote the book because he had "achieved something quite extraordinary." By this, Vance refers to the fact that he overcame his poor, "hillbilly" roots and ended up in the Ivy League (Vance).
Little did he know at the time he wrote this that his book would appear at the top of the New York Times bestseller list in 2016 and 2017, thus adding yet another feather to his hat and setting him apart from his peers back in...
