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authors, Biography, blogs, books, Chang Lung, documentaries, Jackson O'Reilly, James Oliver Rigney Jr. Wheel of Time, Literature, Reagan O'Neil, Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time series, Words, Writer, writers
James Oliver Rigney Jr. aka Robert Jordan is one of the most well known and celebrated fantasy writers of my generation. The NY Times hailed him as the heir to Tolkien. In my opinion he has surpassed in the literary sense anything that Tolkien ever accomplished with The Lord of the Rings. Throughout his career he wrote under different pseudonyms such as Jackson O’ Reilly, Reagan O’ Neil, Chang Lung, and most famously as Robert Jordan. He wrote dance criticism, westerns, historical fictions, as well as fantasy. He also wrote several Conan the Barbarian novels.
He was born in Charleston, South Carolina and attended the Citadel Military College of South Carolina. He graduated with a degree in physics. He then served two terms in the Vietnam war earning a Distinguished Flying Cross with a bronze oak leaf cluster, the bronze star, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with palm.
He published his first novel in 1980 called The Fallon Blood. And completed two more books within that storyline, the last book called The Fallon Legacy in 1982. Other books were to come, but his most famous books was from the Wheel of Time series. The first book of that series to be published was the Eye of the World in 1990. The series included a total of 14 books. Robert Jordan died before he was able to complete his life work. His widow Harriet chose fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson to complete the series using Jordan’s notes, and final manuscripts he had already written before his death. This was by the wishes of Robert Jordan himself that someone would finish the series so his fans would have a ending.
Robert Jordan died at the age of 58 in 2007 from amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy, a rare blood disorder.
James Oliver Rigney Jr.
Born: October 17, 1948 ( Charleston, South Carolina)
Died: September 16, 2007 ( Charleston, South Carolina)
Zodiac Sign: Libra
Age: 58
Cause: Amyloidosis
Buried: St. James Goose Creek Cemetery (Goose Creek, South Carolina)
Spouse: Harriet Mc Dougal 1981-2007
Here is a video that documents parts of Robert Jordan’s life as well as promotes the last book in the Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light.