David Eddings | |
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| Born | David Carroll Eddings (1931-07-07)July 7, 1931 Spokane, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | June 2, 2009(2009-06-02) (aged 77) Carson City, Nevada, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Alma mater | Reed College (BA) University of Washington (MA) |
| Period | 1953–2006 |
| Genre | Epic fantasy |
| Notable works | |
| Spouse | Leigh Eddings (1962–2007) |
David Carroll Eddings (July 7, 1931 – June 2, 2009[1]) was an Americanfantasy writer. With his wifeLeigh, he authored several best-sellingepic fantasy novel series, includingThe Belgariad (1982–84),The Malloreon (1987–91),The Elenium (1989–91),The Tamuli (1992–94), andThe Dreamers (2003–06).
Eddings was born inSpokane, Washington,[2][3] to George Wayne Eddings and Theone (Berge) Eddings,[4] in 1931. Eddings was known to claim to be partCherokee.[5]
Eddings grew up nearPuget Sound in the City ofSnohomish.[6] After graduating fromSnohomish High School in 1949, he worked for a year before majoring in speech, drama and English at junior college.[7] Eddings displayed an early talent for drama and literature, winning a national oratorical contest, and performing the male lead in most of his drama productions. He graduated with a BA fromReed College in 1954, writing his first novel,How Lonely Are The Dead, as his senior thesis. After graduating from Reed College, Eddings was drafted into the U.S. Army,[8] having also previously served in the National Guard.[9] After being discharged in 1956, Eddings attended the graduate school of theUniversity of Washington in Seattle for four years, graduating with an MA in 1961 after submitting a novel in progress,Man Running, for his thesis.[10]
After earning his Master's, Eddings worked as a purchaser forBoeing, where he met his future wife, then known as Judith Leigh Schall.[8] They married in 1962, with Judith taking the name Leigh Eddings. Through most of the 1960s, Eddings worked as an assistant professor atBlack Hills State College in South Dakota.
Eddings and his wife Leigh pled guilty to 11 counts ofphysicalchild abuse[11] of their adopted children. They adopted one boy in 1966, Scott David, then two months old;[12][13] subsequently, the couple adopted a girl between 1966 and 1969.[13] In 1970, the couple lost custody of both children and were each sentenced to a year in jail in separate trials for extensive child abuse of both children.[11] Though the trial and conviction of both David and Leigh Eddings was reported in the local press, the news was not widely disseminated, as Eddings was an obscure academic at the time. The conviction was consequently not remarked on after Eddings became a well-known author over a decade later; it was not widely publicly revealed until after his death.[citation needed]
Eddings had completed the first draft of his first published novel,High Hunt, in March 1971 while serving his jail term.[14]High Hunt was a contemporary story of four young men huntingdeer. Like many of his later novels, it explores themes of manhood andcoming of age.
Eddings did not return to academia after his jail term was completed. After a short period in Denver, David and Leigh Eddings moved toSpokane, where he relied on a job at a grocery shop for his funds, and worked at the writing in his spare time.High Hunt was published in early 1972 byG. P. Putnam's Sons to modestly positive reviews.[15]
Eddings continued to work on several unpublished novels, includingHunseeker's Ascent, a story aboutmountain climbing, which was later burned, as Eddings claimed it was "a piece of tripe so bad it even bored me."[16] Most of his attempts followed the same vein asHigh Hunt: adventure stories and contemporary tragedies. None were sold or published, with the eventual exception ofThe Losers, which tells the story ofGod andthe Devil cast in the roles of Raphael Taylor, gifted student and athlete, and Damon Flood, a scoundrel determined to bring Raphael down. Though written in the 1970s,The Losers was not published until June 1992, well after Eddings' success as an author was established.[9]
Eddings doodled a fantasy map one morning before work. According to Eddings' account several years later, when seeing a copy ofTolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings in a bookshop, he muttered, "Is this old turkey still floating around?". He was surprised to learn that it was then in its 78th printing. He had, though, already included Tolkien's work in the syllabuses for at least three sections of his English Literature survey courses in the summer of 1967 and the springs of 1968 and 1969.[17] He began toannotate the map doodle, which became the basis for his fictional country of Aloria.[16] Over the course of a year, Eddingdetailed around 250 pages of kingdoms, races, characters, theologies and a mythology.[citation needed]
As theLord of the Rings had been published as three books, Eddings believed fantasy in general was supposed to be published in trilogy form. He initially laid outThe Belgariad as three books, until his editor,Lester del Rey, advised him that booksellers would refuse to accept books of 600 pages. Del Rey suggested the series be published as five books. Eddings at first refused, but having already signed the contract, and with Del Rey's promise that he would receive advances for five books rather than three, agreed to the arrangement.[18]Pawn of Prophecy, the first volume in the series, was issued in April 1982. The next four novels where published between then and 1984. The series was popular. Eddings continued to produce fantasy novels for the rest of his life, usually producing a book every year or two.[citation needed]
From 1995 onwards, the novels were credited jointly to Leigh Eddings; Eddings explained in a foreword that their working together as authors "had been the case from the beginning." This is generally accepted as broadly accurate,[19][20][21] although Eddings scholar James Gifford notes that collaboration would have been "impossible" withHigh Hunt, as David Eddings' own notes show that the first draft was completed while he and Leigh were both in separate jails, about half-way through their terms.[22]
The Eddingses' final work, the novel seriesThe Dreamers, was published in four volumes between 2003 and 2006.[citation needed]
On January 26, 2007, Eddings accidentally burned about a quarter of his office, next door to his house, along with hisExcalibur sports car.[23]
On February 28, 2007, David Eddings' wife Leigh died following a series of strokes that left her unable to communicate. She was 69.[24][25] Eddings cared for her at home with her mother after her first stroke, which occurred three years before he finished writingThe Dreamers.[17]
Eddings died of natural causes on June 2, 2009, inCarson City, Nevada.[26][27]
Dennis, Eddings' brother, said that he had suffered from dementia for a long time, but that the disease had progressed rapidly since September 2008, and that he needed 24-hour care. He also confirmed that in his last months, his brother had been working on a manuscript that was unlike any of his other works, stating "It was very, very different. I wouldn't call it exactly a satire of fantasy but it sure plays with the genre". The unfinished work, along with his other manuscripts, went to his alma mater, Reed College,[28] along with a bequest of $18 million to fund "students and faculty studying languages and literature."[29] Eddings also bequeathed $10 million to theNational Jewish Medical and Research Center inDenver for pediatric asthma treatment and research; Eddings' wife Leigh had asthma throughout her life.[30]
In other action Friday, Mattson and Judge Richard A. Furze were served with papers calling for a hearing May 14 on a petition by the Eddings to regain custody of their two adopted children, Scott David, 4, upon whom the abuse was allegedly inflicted, and a younger daughter.
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