R. A. Salvatore | |
|---|---|
 Salvatore in 2006 | |
| Born | Robert Anthony Salvatore (1959-01-20)January 20, 1959 (age 66) |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Fitchburg State University (BS,BA) |
| Period | 1982–present |
| Genre | Fantasy, science fiction |
| Notable works | The Legend of Drizzt The DemonWars Saga |
| Spouse | Diane Salvatore |
| Website | |
| rasalvatore | |
Robert Anthony Salvatore (born January 20, 1959) is an American author best known forThe Legend of Drizzt, a series of fantasy novels set in theForgotten Realms and starring the characterDrizzt Do'Urden. He has also writtenThe DemonWars Saga, a series of high fantasy novels; several other Forgotten Realms novels; andVector Prime, the first novel in theStar Wars:The New Jedi Order series. He has sold more than 15 million copies of his books in the United States alone,[1] and 22 of his titles have beenNew York Times best-sellers.[1][2]
Salvatore was born inLeominster, Massachusetts, the youngest of a family of seven. A graduate of Leominster High School, he has said his high-school English teacher was instrumental in his development as a writer. During his time atFitchburg State College, he became interested in fantasy after readingJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings, given to him as a Christmas gift.[3] He developed an interest in fantasy and other literature, and changed his major from computer science to journalism,[4] earning aBachelor of Science in communications/media in 1981.[5] Later he earned aBachelor of Arts in English.[4] Before taking up writing full-time, he worked as abouncer.[6] He attributes his fierce and vividly described battle scenes to his experience as a bouncer.[7][8]
In 1997, Salvatore's letters, manuscripts, and other professional papers were donated to the R. A. Salvatore collection at Fitchburg State.[4]
In 1982, Salvatore started writing more seriously, developing a manuscript,Echoes of the Fourth Magic, about a submarine sucked into a post-apocalyptic future that resembled a fantasy world.[9] He created the setting of Ynis Aielle for the novel, writing it in longhand by candlelight.[10] Salvatore sent the work to several publishers from 1983 to 1987, includingTSR, Inc.[11]Mary Kirchoff, then working for TSR's book department in reviewing theslush pile of unsolicited submissions, did not like the story much, but did like Salvatore's writing.[12] TSR was then looking for an author to write the second book in theForgotten Realms line and asked Salvatore to audition. In July 1987, he won the assignment.[12] Much of theRealms setting was then undeveloped and waiting to be fleshed out, giving Salvatore relatively free rein. He wrote his first published novel,The Crystal Shard, in just two months, and TSR published it in 1988.[12][4][13] Salvatore'sIcewind Dale trilogy (The Crystal Shard,Streams of Silver, andThe Halfling's Gem) was a huge hit, with over 1.5 million copies sold of the first two novels, and the third book hittingThe New York Times list of paperback bestsellers.[12] Salvatore's first novel published in hardcover was another Drizzt book,The Legacy (1992).[13] It reached the number 9 slot onThe New York Times list of bestsellers in September 1992.[12] In 1994, Salvatore branched out beyond working for TSR; he signed a three-book deal withWarner Books for what becameThe Crimson Shadow series. He and TSR engaged in a dispute afterward. TSR's managing editor of the fiction department,Brian Thomsen, wanted Salvatore to write six additional novels when renewing the contract, rather than the three that Salvatore offered. Salvatore, who had just agreed to write three novels for Warner and had written 14 in the previous six years, was unwilling to commit to write so many novels in such a short time at the rate TSR offered; he would have to write three novels a year to honor all his obligations to TSR and Warner had he taken TSR's contract as written. Thomsen suggested that Salvatore find aghostwriter, a suggestion Salvatore found distasteful. Negotiations ultimately fell through; TSR was unwilling to budge on its demands and unwilling to put the Drizzt brand on hold while Salvatore finished books for other publishers. TSR also possibly believed that the "brand" was more valuable than any specific author, as Thomsen said he would find another author to write Drizzt (TSR owned the rights to the Forgotten Realms and all its characters). For his part, Salvatore felt bullied by the company to which he had contributed such a valuable property, and signed a three-novel deal withDel Rey instead for what becameThe DemonWars Saga.[12] His last Drizzt novel for some time was 1996'sPassage to Dawn, fulfilling his previous contract. Salvatore publicly said that if TSR assigned another author to write Drizzt, he would never write Drizzt again and would consider Drizzt dead.[12] TSR followed through with its threat and chose a new author to write Drizzt stories;Mark Anthony completed the Drizzt novelThe Shores of Dusk. AfterWizards of the Coast acquired TSR in 1997, one of its first actions was to fire Thomsen and attempt to mend broken bonds with TSR's authors. Wizards shelved Anthony's novel to lure Salvatore back.[12] Salvatore returned to the Drizzt series withThe Silent Blade (1998),[13] which won theOrigins Award that year.[4] He published several more series of books in theForgotten Realms campaign world.
Salvatore wroteVector Prime, which was published in 1999 as the first novel in theStar Wars:The New Jedi Order series.Vector Prime was controversial amongStar Wars fans because its plot included the death ofChewbacca, who became the first major character from the original trilogy to be killed in theStar Wars expanded universe novels. Many fans thought that Salvatore had made this decision, but in factLucasfilm and Del Rey's editors had decided they needed to kill a character to sell the new threat of the Yuuzhan Vong; the editors wanted to kill Luke Skywalker, but were refused permission by Lucasfilm.Randy Stradley, then an editor atDark Horse Comics, suggested killing Chewbacca, and the decision was made.[14] Much later, afterDisney bought the rights toStar Wars in 2012, it declared in 2014 that all Expanded Universe works released before 2014 were non-canon. Chewbacca's death inVector Prime was cited as a major reason for revoking the canonical status of so many works.[15]
In February 2008,Devil's Due Publishing publishedSpooks, a comic book about a U.S. government anti-paranormal investigator/task force created byLarry Hama and Salvatore. Hama created the military characters and plots, and Salvatore covered the monster characters.[16]
In addition to his novels, Salvatore has written for video games. He wrote the story for thePlayStation 2,Xbox andPC video gameForgotten Realms: Demon Stone (2004), working with the design team atStormfront Studios. The game was published byAtari and was nominated for awards by theAcademy of Interactive Arts & Sciences andBAFTA. CDS books commissioned him to edit a four book series based on the interactive onlineEverQuest game.[17] He also wrote the bot chat lines for theQuake III bots.
Salvatore was hired as creative director for the newly created game developer38 Studios, owned by former baseball playerCurt Schilling. He wrote the dialogue and created a backstory spanning 10,000 years for the fantasy gameKingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which was released in 2012[18] and sold over one million units.[19] But three months later, 38 Studios declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. The company laid off its entire staff, including Salvatore, with the $2 million fee for his services never paid.[20] Salvatore said he harbored no ill will toward Schilling, who "didn't do anything nefarious" and also suffered losses.[21]
In 2010, Wizards of the Coast announced a new deal with Salvatore to write six more books featuring Drizzt; the books were released between 2011 and 2016.[1]
Salvatore is best known forThe Legend of Drizzt, a series of fantasy novels set in theForgotten Realms and starring the characterDrizzt Do'Urden. He has also written several other Forgotten Realms novels;The DemonWars Saga (a series of high fantasy novels);Vector Prime (the first novel in theStar Wars:The New Jedi Order series); and several other novels and series (see bibliography for full list).
