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Stephen Donaldson, 1947 - Novelist Stephen Donaldson was born on May 13, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio to James R. Donaldson, a medical missionary, and Mary Ruth Reeder, a prosthetist. His father was an orthopedic surgeon that worked with lepers in India. He lived in India between the ages of three to sixteen and while listening to one of his father's lectures on leprosy, he conceived the legendary Thomas Covenant. Donaldson attended the College of Wooster, Ohio and graduated in 1968. Afterwards, he spent two years being a conscientious objector doing hospital work in Akron and then attended Kent University where he received an M.A. in English. Donaldson's publishing debut was with "Lord Foul's Bane" (1977), which was the first book in the fantasy trilogy entitled The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. It was named best novel of the year by the British Fantasy Society and received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, in 1979. He followed with the sequel series The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, also set in The Land, starting with "Daughter of Regals," and then the Mordant's Need series with "The Mirror of Her Dreams" and "A Man Rides Through." Donaldson is also the author of the Gap Into series of science fiction adventure that began with "The Real Story" and followed with "Forbidden Knowledge," "A Dark and Hungry God Arises," and "Chaos and Order." In addition to the awards he received for his first novel/series, Donaldson has also received the Balrog Fantasy Award for Best Novel for "The Wounded Land" in 1981 and for "The One Tree" in 1983, the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Novel for "The One Tree" in 1983, the Balrog Fantasy Award for Best Collection for "Daughter of Regals and Other Tales" in 1985, and the Science Fiction Book Club Award for Best Book of the Year for "The Mirror of Her Dreams" in 1988 and "A Man Rides Through" in 1989. He also received The College of Wooster Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989, the WIN/WIN Popular Fiction Readers Choice Award for Favorite Fantasy Author in 1991, the Atlanta Fantasy Fair Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1992 and the President's Award, The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in 1997. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from Lord Foul's Bane… (more)
Lord Foul's Bane 5,909 copies, 87 reviews
The Illearth War 4,423 copies, 29 reviews
The Power That Preserves 4,237 copies, 26 reviews
The Wounded Land 3,513 copies, 15 reviews
The One Tree 3,377 copies, 10 reviews
White Gold Wielder 3,353 copies, 13 reviews
The Mirror of Her Dreams 2,884 copies, 32 reviews
A Man Rides Through 2,471 copies, 18 reviews
The Runes of the Earth 2,072 copies, 24 reviews
The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story 2,035 copies, 27 reviews
Daughter of Regals and Other Tales 1,252 copies, 11 reviews
Fatal Revenant 1,228 copies, 20 reviews
Against All Things Ending 824 copies, 34 reviews
Reave the Just and Other Tales 572 copies, 4 reviews
Gilden-fire (short story) 545 copies, 2 reviews
The Last Dark 464 copies, 32 reviews
Seventh Decimate 215 copies, 13 reviews
The Man Who Fought Alone 194 copies, 3 reviews
Strange Dreams (Editor) 178 copies
The Man Who Killed His Brother (Author) 174 copies, 6 reviews
The King's Justice: Two Novellas 122 copies, 8 reviews
The Man Who Risked His Partner 120 copies, 1 review
Mordant's Need 102 copies, 2 reviews
The Man Who Tried to Get Away 96 copies, 1 review
The War Within 76 copies, 8 reviews
The King's Justice [novella] 27 copies, 2 reviews
The Augur's Gambit 23 copies, 1 review
A Man Rides Through, Part 2/2 22 copies, 1 review
A Man Rides Through, Part 1/2 22 copies, 1 review
The Conqueror Worm 8 copies, 1 review
Animal Lover 7 copies
2002 3 copies
1996 1 copy
After the King (Contributor) 731 copies, 9 reviews
The Wizards of Odd: Comic Tales of Fantasy (Contributor) 600 copies, 4 reviews
I Shudder at Your Touch (Contributor) 514 copies, 6 reviews
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, Volume 1 (Introduction, some editions) 377 copies, 14 reviews
Godbody (Afterword, some editions) 374 copies, 14 reviews
Berserker Base (Contributor) 308 copies, 2 reviews
The 1985 Annual World's Best SF (Contributor) 227 copies, 2 reviews
Unicorns! (Contributor) 217 copies, 2 reviews
Gallery of Horror (Contributor) 209 copies, 3 reviews
The 1986 Annual World's Best SF (Contributor) 205 copies, 1 review
Stellar #4: Science-Fiction Stories (Contributor) 123 copies, 2 reviews
Full Spectrum 4 (Contributor) 100 copies, 3 reviews
Arabesques II (Contributor) 71 copies, 1 review
The Year's Finest Fantasy: Volume 2 (Contributor) 64 copies
The Book of Kings (Contributor) 48 copies, 1 review

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Born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio, Stephen R. Donaldson lived in India (where his father was a medical missionary) until 1963. He graduated from the College of Wooster (Ohio) in 1968, served two years as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, doing hospital work in Akron, then attended Kent State University, where he received his M.A. in English in 1971.After dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first "Covenant" trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico.The novels for which he is best known have received a number of awards. However, the achievements of which he is most proud are the ones that seemed the most unlikely. In 1993 he received a Doctor of Literature degree from the College of Wooster, and in 1994 he gained a black belt in Shotokan karate from Sensei Mike Heister and Anshin Personal Defense.After completing the five-book, seven-year Gap sequence of science fiction novels, Donaldson spent quite some time "on vacation." However, he has now returned to work. His most recent book prior to The Man Who Fought Alone was a second collection of short fiction, Reave the Just and Other Tales. He is currently hard at work on "The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant".
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