ROBERT JORDAN: The Name Behind the Wheel (excerpted from Locus Magazine, March 2000)
James Oliver Rigney, Jr. was born October 17, 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina. He served in the military, seeing action in Vietnam, from 1968 to 1970, and attended the military school The Citadel in South Carolina, graduating with a degree in physics in the mid-‘70s.
His early novels, written as by Reagan O’Neal, were historical family sagas beginning with The Fallon Blood (1980). A western Cheyenne Raiders , under pseudonym Jackson O’Reilly, came out in 1982. Under the name Robert Jordan, he did the 1982 novelization of the Conan movie, followed by six more “Conan” books. His first independent fantasy novel, The Eye of the World (1990), also written as by Robert Jordan, is the beginning of the ongoing “Wheel of Time” series. It was followed by The Great Hunt (1990), The Dragon Reborn (1991), The Shadow Rising (1992), The Fires of Heaven (1993), Lord of Chaos (1994), A Crown of Swords (1996), and The Path of Daggers (1998). The ninth volume, Winter’s Heart , is scheduled for later this year.
He is married to Tor executive editor Harriet McDougal. They live in Charleston, South Carolina.
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