Robert Jordan | |
|---|---|
 Jordan in 2005 | |
| Born | James Oliver Rigney Jr. (1948-10-17)October 17, 1948 |
| Died | September 16, 2007(2007-09-16) (aged 58) Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Education | The Citadel (BS) |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Years active | 1977-2007 |
| Notable works | The Wheel of Time |
| Spouse | |
| Signature | |
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James Oliver Rigney Jr. (October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007), better known by his pen nameRobert Jordan,[1] was an American author ofepic fantasy. He is best known as the author ofThe Wheel of Time series, which comprises 14 books and aprequel novel. The series is among the highest selling book series of all time, with 90 million copies sold.[2] In his earlier career he became one of several writers to produce originalConan the Barbarian novels; his are considered by fans to be some of the best of the non-Robert E. Howard efforts. Robert Jordan was the most well known of severalpen names he used, adopting different monikers for different genres.[3]
Jordan was born inCharleston, South Carolina on October 17, 1948 to James and Eva Rigney (nee Grooms). Rigney Sr. was aWorld War II veteran and served as a police officer before working at theCharleston Naval Shipyard.[4] He taught himself to read at the age of four years old, because his older brother did not finish readingWhite Fang to him and Jordan "wanted to know what happened," and at five was readingMark Twain andJules Verne.[5][6] He went toClemson University, where he playedfootball as alineman, but dropped out after one year and enlisted in theU.S. Army.[7][8][9]
He served two tours of duty during theVietnam War as a helicopter gunner, from 1968 to 1970.[10][11] He supportedBell UH-1 Iroquois helicopters, and was deployed toSaigon and laterBien Hoa. Asked about his experiences in 2003, he stated that they flew in "Zone C, ThePhu Rieng Rubber Plantation, down toCu Chi in the delta, over toNui Ba Dinh, Black Virgin Mountain, and we were flying intoCambodia long before theParrot's Beak".[12] He survived a helicopter crash aged 19, which affected his views on mortality.[13] During his time in the military one of his nicknames was "Iceman", in reference to an incident in which he intercepted a number ofNVA troops crossing a river. Jordan strongly disliked the nickname. In a 2007 blog post, he stated that he "strangled that SOB, drove a stake through his heart, and buried him face down under a crossroad outside Saigon before coming home, because I knew that guy wasn't made to survive in a civilian environment." He preferred the nickname Ganesha he attained, as "the remover of obstacles".[14] He was awarded theDistinguished Flying Cross withoak leaf cluster, theBronze Star with "V" and oak leaf cluster, and twoVietnamese Gallantry Crosses with palm.[15]
After returning from Vietnam in 1970, Jordan studiedphysics atThe Citadel Military College of South Carolina. He graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science degree and began working for theU.S. Navy as anuclear engineer.[16] He designed tests and overhaulednuclear reactors for US naval vessels. In 1977 he fell during a walk between thedry dock and his office and faced a serious knee injury and an extended hospital stay. He found that he was bored by the work of other writers while in hospital, and believing he could do better, decided to begin writing himself.[17][18]
Jordan began writing in 1977. His first writing project was a fantasy novel entitledWarriors of the Altaii, writing by hand over three and a half months and typing it up when he returned to work. He contactedDonald A. Wolheim atDAW Books and immediately received an offer, but after attempting to negotiate a minor detail the offer was rejected, citing his "excessive demands". Despite the lack of a publishing deal, he tendered his resignation from his nuclear engineering job- confident that he could write full time.[18][17][19]
A local bookstore owner put Jordan in touch with the editorHarriet McDougal, who readAltaii. Instead of editing this early work she asked for a new story, which led Jordan to writeThe Fallon Blood, published in 1980 by McDougal's personal imprint, Popham Press. Jordan began dating McDougal and his late 1970sDungeons & Dragons game with her son Will would serve as inspiration forThe Wheel of Time.[20][21]
Jordan wrote three books in the Fallon saga and planned it to be a longer series chronicling thehistory of the United States from the time of theCivil War to the Vietnam War. While the works sold fairly well, Jordan became bored after the third one and decided to explore other avenues.[22] Jordan stopped using Popham Press in the early 1980s as he was aware that it was owned by McDougal and he was about to marry his "only source of income". With this in mind, his future books would be published by other companies while McDougal would continue to edit his works.[23] He also wrote the westernCheyenne Raiders around this time, his only book to use a different editor.
Tom Doherty atTor Books obtained the rights toConan the Barbarian and needed a novel very quickly. McDougal recommended Jordan because she knew he had written his first novel,Warriors of the Altaii, in a very short time span. Jordan initially turned down the offer because he was concerned about writing in an established fictional universe from another author. He later accepted and enjoyed the project, though he found it difficult to be creative within the strict format rules of the books.[18] Jordan would go on to write seven of these from 1982 to 1984.
So he thought I could write something fast, and he was right, and I liked it. It was fun writing something completely over the top, full ofpurple prose, and in a weak moment I agreed to do five more and thenovelization of thesecond Conan movie. I've decided that those things were very good discipline for me. I had to work with acharacter and aworld that had already been created and yet find a way to say something new about the character and the world. That was a very good exercise.
— Robert Jordan, 2003[24]
On the back of the successful Conan books, Doherty asked if he had any other book ideas, and Jordan discussed his plans for an epic fantasy series, of up to three books in length.[25] Jordan's work onThe Wheel of Time began in 1984 and ballooned in scope from the initial three book vision.[25] The series would occupy much of his writing time for the remainder of his life. He completed 12 books in his lifetime, including the prequelNew Spring. Reviewers and fans of the earlier books noted a slowing of the pace of events in the last few installments written solely by Jordan owing to the expansion of the scale of the series as a whole.[26]
Diagnosed with a terminal heart condition in the mid 2000s, he became concerned that he might not live to complete the series and compiled additional notes beyond those he already had so that another could finish the "final" book,A Memory of Light.[27] He shared all of the significant plot details with his family not long before he died with this in mind.[28] He maintained that in doing so the book would get published even if "the worst actually happens".[29] After Jordan's death in September 2007,Brandon Sanderson took on that role, splitting the final book into three volumes, and completed the series in 2013.[30]
Robert Jordan was a history enthusiast and enjoyed hunting, fishing, sailing, poker, chess, pool, and pipe-collecting. He described himself as a "high church"Episcopalian[16] and receivedcommunion more than once a week.[31] Politically, he described himself as a "libertarianmonarchist".[32]
Jordan's favorite authors wereJohn D. MacDonald,Jane Austen,Louis L'Amour,,Charles Dickens,Robert A. Heinlein,Mark Twain andMontaigne.[33] He was a prodigious reader, reading around 400 books a year in the early 1990s, and his home library had over 14,000 books at the time of his death.[34][35]
Jordan acknowledged in interviews that as a younger man he had been in a relationship with two women who would arrange a dating schedule between them. This inspired thenon-monogamous relationships seen in his writing.[36][37][38] Jordan later met the editorHarriet McDougal, whom he married in 1981. Among other material, McDougal edited Jordan's work.[5]
On March 23, 2006, Jordan revealed that he had been diagnosed withcardiac amyloidosis and that, with treatment, hismedianlife expectancy was four years.[39] In a separate weblog post, he encouraged his fans not to worry about him and stated that he intended to have a long and creative life.[40] He beganchemotherapy atMayo Clinic during early April 2006.[41] He participated in a study of the drugRevlimid, which had been approved recently formultiple myeloma but not yet tested for primaryamyloidosis.[42]
Jordan died on September 16, 2007.[43] His funeral service was on September 19, 2007.[44] He was cremated and his ashes buried in the churchyard ofSt. James Church inGoose Creek, outsideCharleston, South Carolina.[45] Jordan's papers can be found in thespecial collections of theCollege of Charleston.[46] Access to some records including Jordan's correspondence papers is restricted, and will not be available for viewing until thirty years after his death (September 2037).[47]
Born Rigney jr., he published his works under pseodonyms or "pen names", of which Robert Jordan was his best known. He used different titles for different genres:[3]
Jordan never published any books under his actual name. This was reserved for a hypothetical book about his experiences in the Vietnam War which he never wrote.[48] He also claimed to haveghostwritten an "international thriller" that as of 2005 was still believed to have been written by someone else.
