question: Which multi-million-selling American author is the eldest, James Patterson or Terry Brooks?
answer: Terence Dean "Terry" Brooks
context: Title: Michael Ledwidge
  Passage: Michael S. Ledwidge is an American author of Irish descent.  He wrote his first novel, The Narrowback, while working as the back elevator operator for a Park Avenue Coop apartment building.  His novel, Bad Connection was written while working as a lineman for the telephone company in NYC.  His most successful writing has been several books he has co-authored with the best-selling author James Patterson.
  Title: Treasure Hunters (literary series)
  Passage: Treasure Hunters is a series of young adult and adventure fiction books written by American author James Patterson with Chris Grabenstein and Mark Shulman.  The series has been sold in more than 35 countries, with generally positive and few mixed reviews from critics.
  Title: Howard Roughan
  Passage: Howard Roughan is an American author.  He has two novels in print: "The Up and Comer" (2001) and "The Promise of a Lie" (2004).  The rights to "The Up and Comer" have been optioned by October Films, and Michael Douglas is attached to produce the movie-version of Roughan's novel.  Roughan also co-wrote the novels "Honeymoon", "You've Been Warned", "Sail", and "Don't Blink" which was published on September 27, 2010, with best-selling author James Patterson.
  Title: Maxine Paetro
  Passage: Maxine Paetro is an American author who has been published since 1979.  Paetro has collaborated with best-selling author James Patterson on the Women’s Murder Club novel series and standalone novels.
  Title: Terry Brooks
  Passage: Terence Dean "Terry" Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is an American writer of fantasy fiction.  He writes mainly epic fantasy, and has also written two movie novelizations.  He has written 23 "New York Times" bestsellers during his writing career, and has over 21 million copies of his books in print.  He is one of the biggest-selling living fantasy writers.
  Title: James Patterson
  Passage: James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author and philanthropist.  Among his works are the "Alex Cross", "Michael Bennett", "Women's Murder Club", "Maximum Ride", "Daniel X", "NYPD Red", "Witch and Wizard", and "Private" series, as well as many stand-alone thrillers, non-fiction and romance novels.  His books have sold more than 300 million copies and he was the first person to sell 1 million e-books.  In 2016, Patterson topped "Forbes"'s list of highest-paid authors for the third consecutive year, with an income of $95 million.  His total income over a decade is estimated at $700 million.
  Title: Alex Cross, Run
  Passage: Alex Cross, Run is the 20th novel in the "Alex Cross" series written by American author James Patterson.  The novel focuses on the protagonist, detective Alex Cross, who must solve three cases at once with the whole city in a frenzy.
  Title: 11th Hour (novel)
  Passage: 11th Hour is the 11th novel of the "Women’s Murder Club" series written by American author James Patterson.  The main character of this series is Sgt. Lindsay Boxer.  The series is a set in San Francisco and the Women's Murder Club is a small group of women who meet with Boxer to help solve sensational crimes in the city.  Throughout the series, the membership of the Women's Murder Club has had some changes.
  Title: Christopher Stasheff
  Passage: Christopher Stasheff (born 1944) is an American science fiction author and fantasy author whose novels include "The Warlock in Spite of Himself" (1969) and "Her Majesty's Wizard" (1986).  He has a PhD.  in Theatre and taught radio and television at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico; he is now retired and living in Champaign, Illinois.  Stasheff has been noted for his blending of science fiction and fantasy, as seen in his "Warlock" series, which placed an "'epic fantasy' in a science fictional frame".  Stasheff's writing is often seen in the moral and ethical mentor style similar to Terry Goodkind, Terry Brooks or J.R.R. Tolkien.
citations: Terry Brooks James Patterson