Robert Jordan (writer, 1948)

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Robert Jordan (2005)

Robert Jordan was a pseudonym of the American writer James Oliver Rigney, Jr. (born October 17, 1948 in Charleston , South Carolina , † September 16, 2007 ibid), who was primarily known for his fantasy novel cycle The Wheel of Time .

Life

Robert Jordan was born in Charleston , South Carolina . He served as a US soldier in the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1970 , during which time he received several awards and as a result received a small number of medals . Jordan then studied physics at the South Carolina Military Academy and worked as a nuclear physicist for the US Navy after graduating. He lived with his wife Harriet McDougal in his birthplace Charleston (South Carolina) until his death.

On March 25, 2006, the author announced that he had been diagnosed with the very rare blood disease amyloidosis , which could be fatal within a year without treatment and which, even with medical assistance, only guaranteed an average life expectancy of four years. Jordan then declared that it would take him about 30 years to finish all the books he had in mind, and that he was determined to live at least that long.

Jordan started treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in April 2006 . On December 23, he stated on his blog that the therapy was working well and that he was optimistic, despite regular visits to the hospital. Contrary to his hopes, Jordan died on September 16, 2007 at the age of 58.

Pseudonyms

Rigney adopted the name Robert Jordan as a pseudonym when he began writing for the Conan series (originally written by Robert E. Howard ). Robert Jordan is the name of the protagonist in Hemingway's Whom the Hour Strikes (1940), but Jordan has stated that he has chosen all pseudonyms from three lists of names based on his initials. Other pseudonyms Jordan wrote under were Reagan O'Neal (the Fallon series), Jackson O'Reilly ( Cheyenne Raiders ), and Chang Lung (magazine publications).

The wheel of time

Robert Jordan became known through the fantasy book series Das Rad der Zeit , in which 14 original volumes were published. The German translations were again divided into several parts, so that the series in Germany comprises 37 books.

Jordan had announced that the series should end with the twelfth book (working title: A Memory of Light ), which could therefore be around 1500 pages. At the time of Jordan's death, however, the book was not yet finished. However, given his illness, he did reveal to his family the key details of the story and how he intended to end it, in the worst case scenario.

Writer Brandon Sanderson completed the series in close collaboration with Jordan's widow Harriet McDougal. The originally planned final book in the series, entitled A Memory of Light , based on Jordan's notes, was divided into three volumes due to its large size. The first of these volumes was published in the original English under the title The Gathering Storm in October 2009. The second volume, Towers of Midnight , was published in November 2010. The last volume, A Memory of Light , was published in January 2013.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official statement on the website of the publisher ToR ( Memento from April 17, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Entry by Jordan in his blog. December 23, 2016, accessed October 8, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Death report ( memento from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : Robert Jordan  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Jordan, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rigney Jr., James Oliver (real name); O'Neal, Reagan (pseudonym); O'Reilly, Jackson (pen name); Lung, Chang (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American fantasy writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Charleston , South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 2007
Place of death Charleston , South Carolina