David Eddings

David Eddings
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)
Genre	Fantasy
Years active	1972–2006
Notable works	The Belgariad The Malloreon The Elenium The Tamuli The Dreamers
Spouse	Leigh Eddings (1962–2007)

David Carroll Eddings (July 7, 1931 – June 2, 2009^[1]) was an American fantasy writer. With his wife Leigh, he authored several best-selling epic fantasy novel series, including The Belgariad (1982–84), The Malloreon (1987–91), The Elenium (1989–91), The Tamuli (1992–94), and The Dreamers (2003–06).

Early life and education

Eddings was born in Spokane, Washington, to George Wayne Eddings and Theone (Berge) Eddings,^[2] in 1931. Eddings was known to claim to be part Cherokee.^[3]

Eddings grew up near Puget Sound in the City of Snohomish.^[4] After graduating from Snohomish High School in 1949, he worked for a year before majoring in speech, drama and English at junior college.^[5] 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 from Reed 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,^[6] having also previously served in the National Guard.^[7] After being discharged in 1956, Eddings attended the graduate school of the University of Washington in Seattle for four years, graduating with an MA in 1961 after submitting a novel in progress, Man Running, for his thesis.^[8]

Early career and child abuse conviction

After earning his Master's, Eddings worked as a purchaser for

They adopted one boy in 1966, Scott David, then two months old.^[9][10] They adopted a younger girl between 1966 and 1969.^[10] In 1970 the couple lost custody of both children and were each sentenced to a year in jail in separate trials after pleading guilty to 11 counts of physical child abuse.^[11] Though the nature of the abuse, the trial, and the sentencing were all extensively reported in South Dakota newspapers at the time, these details did not resurface in media coverage of the couple during their successful joint career as authors, only returning to public attention several years after both had died.

After both served their sentences, David and Leigh Eddings moved to Denver in 1971, where David found work in a grocery store.^{[citation needed]}

Literary career

Early literary career

Eddings had completed the first draft of his first published novel, High Hunt, in March 1971 while serving his jail term.^[12] High Hunt was a contemporary story of four young men hunting deer, and like many of his later novels, it explores themes of manhood and coming of age. Convinced that being an author was his future career, after a short period in Denver, David and Leigh Eddings moved to Spokane, where he once again relied on a job at a grocery shop for his funds. High Hunt was published in early 1972 by G. P. Putnam's Sons to modestly positive reviews.^[13]

Eddings continued to work on several unpublished novels, including Hunseeker's Ascent, a story about mountain climbing, which was later burned, as Eddings claimed it was "a piece of tripe so bad it even bored me."^[14] Most of his attempts followed the same vein as High Hunt: adventure stories and contemporary tragedies. None were sold or published, with the eventual exception of The Losers, which tells the story of God and the Devil, cast in the roles of Raphael Taylor, gifted student and athlete, and Damon Flood, 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.^[7]

Success in fantasy

Eddings doodled a fantasy map one morning before work. According to Eddings, several years later, upon seeing a copy of

By 1995, new books were credited jointly to David and Leigh Eddings; Eddings explained in a brief foreword that their working together as authors "had been the case from the beginning." This is generally accepted to be broadly accurate,[17]^[18][19] although Eddings scholar James Gifford notes that collaboration would have been "impossible" with Eddings' first published novel High Hunt, as David Eddings' own notes show that the first draft was completed while he and Leigh were both in different jails, about half-way through their terms.^[20]

The Eddingses' final work, the novel series The Dreamers, was published in four volumes between 2003 and 2006.

Later life

On January 26, 2007, Eddings accidentally burned about a quarter of his office, next door to his house, along with his Excalibur sports car.^[21]

On February 28, 2007, David Eddings' wife Leigh died following a series of strokes that left her unable to communicate. She was 69.^[22][23] Eddings cared for her at home with her mother after her first stroke, which occurred three years before he finished writing The Dreamers.^[15]

Eddings died of natural causes on June 2, 2009, in Carson City, Nevada.^[24][25]

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,

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to David Eddings.

• Interview with David Eddings at sffworld.com
• David Eddings at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Novel synopses, cover art, and reviews at FantasyLiterature.netArchived 2008-05-10 at the Wayback Machine
• Descendants of John Eddings and Elizabeth Weaver (Cherokee)