Diagnosed with ALS in 2015 and confined to a wheelchair in 2018, he wrote his first collection of essays, entitled Wanderings of a Captive Mind. A second set of essays, The Eyes Have It (Wanderings Part 2), was written entirely using his eyes. Those essays are by practical necessity shorter and without the many references. This new set, also written primarily with his eyes, is Part 3 of Wanderings.

And, as J.R.R. Tolkien wrote:

"Not all those who wander are lost... ."

Born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in Northville, Michigan, John majored in economics at Amherst College (Class of 1970) and received his J.D. from The Harvard Law School in 1973. Following law school, he did post-graduate research at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College). In late 1974, John began a 37-year career as a commercial litigator with a major law firm in New York City. John retired from the practice of law in 2011 and, shortly thereafter, located just outside of Cambridge, England.

In March 2015, however, after his diagnosis, he returned to the U.S., settling in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. His daughter Sarah and his son John Eliot and daughter-in-law Megan, with his two grandchildren, Hannah and Jeffrey, all live nearby.