Author Robert Jordan died of cardiac amyloidosis, which he’d been battling for some time, on 16 September 2007. Born James Oliver Rigney, Jr., in Charleston, South Carolina, on 17 October 1948, Jordan was his most famous pseudonym, under which he wrote the wildly popular “Wheel of Time” series.
Before his writing career, which started in the mid-1970s, he served in the US Army, doing two tours in Vietnam (1968-70). After returning, he attended The Citadel and received an undergraduate degree in physics. After graduating he, worked for US Navy as a nuclear engineer.
Before getting to his most famous original literary work, Rigney wrote the Fallon series under the pseudonym Reagan O’Neal: The Fallon Blood (1980), The Fallon Pride (1981), and The Fallon Legacy (1982). Following those, he was hired to write several “Conan” novels, for which he used the Robert Jordan name. Those books include: Conan the Invincible (1982), Conan the Defender (1982), Conan the Unconquered (1983), Conan the Triumphant (1983), Conan the Magnificent (1984), Conan the Destroyer (1984), and Conan the Victorious (1984).
The Wheel of Time, his massive fantasy undertaking, was projected to be thirteen books (12 of the main sequence, plus a prequel). Jordan was working on the last volume, A Memory of Light, at the time of his death, for a projected publication date of 2009. Tor Books, publisher of the series, hosts the official web site at www.tor.com/jordan. The already published novels include the prequel, New Spring (published in 2004), and eleven novels in the main sequence: The Eye of the World (1990), 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), The Path of Daggers (1998), Winter’s Heart (2000), Crossroads of Twilight (2003), and Knife of Dreams (2005).
Jordan also wrote historical fiction under the pseudonym Jackson O’Reilly.
Jordan’s blog, which is down at the time of this writing, is at www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan. Jordan is survived by his wife, editor Harriet McDougal.