fbpx
Wikipedia

R. A. Salvatore

August 25, 2023

Robert Anthony Salvatore (born January 20, 1959) is an American author best known for The Legend of Drizzt, a series of fantasy novels set in the Forgotten Realms and starring the character Drizzt Do'Urden. He has also written The DemonWars Saga, a series of high fantasy novels; several other Forgotten Realms novels; and Vector Prime, the first novel in the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series. He has sold more than 15 million copies of his books in the United States alone,[1] and 22 of his titles have been New York Times best-sellers.[1][2]

R. A. Salvatore
Salvatore in 2006
BornRobert Anthony Salvatore
(1959-01-20) January 20, 1959 (age 64)
Leominster, Massachusetts, United States
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
Period1982–present
GenreFantasy, science fiction
Notable worksThe Legend of Drizzt
The DemonWars Saga
SpouseDiane Salvatore
Website
rasalvatore.com

Early life and education Edit

 
Salvatore at a book signing in 2008

Salvatore was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, the youngest of a family of seven. A graduate of Leominster High School, he has said his high-school English teacher was instrumental in his development as a writer. During his time at Fitchburg State College, he became interested in fantasy after reading J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, given to him as a Christmas gift.[3] He developed an interest in fantasy and other literature, and changed his major from computer science to journalism,[4] earning a Bachelor of Science in communications/media in 1981.[5] Later he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English.[4] Before taking up writing full-time, he worked as a bouncer.[6] He attributes his fierce and vividly described battle scenes to his experience as a bouncer.[7][8]

In 1997, Salvatore's letters, manuscripts, and other professional papers were donated to the R. A. Salvatore collection at Fitchburg State University.[4]

Career Edit

1980s–90s Edit

In 1982, Salvatore started writing more seriously, developing a manuscript, Echoes of the Fourth Magic, about a submarine sucked into a post-apocalyptic future that resembled a fantasy world.[9] He created the setting of Ynis Aielle for the novel, writing it in longhand by candlelight.[10] Salvatore sent the work to several publishers from 1983 to 1987, including TSR, Inc.[11] Mary Kirchoff, then working for TSR's book department in reviewing the slush pile of unsolicited submissions, did not like the story much, but did like Salvatore's writing.[12] TSR was then looking for an author to write the second book in the Forgotten Realms line and asked Salvatore to audition. In July 1987, he won the assignment.[12] Much of the Realms setting was then undeveloped and waiting to be fleshed out, giving Salvatore relatively free rein. He wrote his first published novel, The Crystal Shard, in just two months, and TSR published it in 1988.[12][4][13] Salvatore's Icewind Dale trilogy (The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, and The Halfling's Gem) was a huge hit, with over 1.5 million copies sold of the first two novels, and the third book hitting The New York Times list of paperback bestsellers.[12] Salvatore's first novel published in hardcover was another Drizzt book, The Legacy (1992).[13] It reached the number 9 slot on The New York Times list of bestsellers in September 1992.[12] In 1994, Salvatore signed a three-book deal with Warner Books for what became The Crimson Shadow series. He and TSR engaged in a dispute afterward. TSR's managing editor of the fiction department, Brian Thomsen, wanted Salvatore to write six additional novels when renewing the contract, rather than the three that Salvatore offered. Salvatore, who had just agreed to write three novels for Warner and had written 14 in the previous six years, was unwilling to commit to write so many novels in such a short time at the rate TSR offered; he would have to write three novels a year to honor all his obligations to TSR and Warner had he taken TSR's contract as written. Thomsen suggested that Salvatore find a ghostwriter, a suggestion Salvatore found distasteful. Negotiations ultimately fell through; TSR was unwilling to budge on its demands and unwilling to put the Drizzt brand on hold while Salvatore finished books for other publishers. TSR also possibly believed that the "brand" was more valuable than any specific author, as Thomsen said he would find another author to write Drizzt (TSR owned the rights to the Forgotten Realms and all its characters). For his part, Salvatore felt bullied by the company to which he had contributed such a valuable property, and signed a three-novel deal with Del Rey instead for what became The DemonWars Saga.[12] His last Drizzt novel for some time was 1996's Passage to Dawn, fulfilling his previous contract. Salvatore publicly said that if TSR assigned another author to write Drizzt, he would never write Drizzt again and would consider Drizzt dead.[12] TSR followed through with its threat and chose a new author to write Drizzt stories; Mark Anthony completed the Drizzt novel The Shores of Dusk. After Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR in 1997, one of its first actions was to fire Thomsen and attempt to mend broken bonds with TSR's authors. Wizards shelved Anthony's novel to lure Salvatore back.[12] Salvatore returned to the Drizzt series with The Silent Blade (1998),[13] which won the Origins Award that year.[4] He published several more series of books in the Forgotten Realms campaign world.

Salvatore wrote Vector Prime, which was published in 1999 as the first novel in the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series. Vector Prime was controversial among Star Wars fans because its plot included the death of Chewbacca, who became the first major character from the original trilogy to be killed in the Star Wars expanded universe novels. Many fans thought that Salvatore had made this decision, but in fact Lucasfilm and Del Rey's editors had decided they needed to kill a character to sell the new threat of the Yuuzhan Vong; the editors wanted to kill Luke Skywalker, but were refused permission by Lucasfilm. Randy Stradley, then an editor at Dark Horse Comics, suggested killing Chewbacca, and the decision was made.[14] Much later, after Disney bought the rights to Star Wars in 2012, it declared in 2014 that all Expanded Universe works released before 2014 were non-canon. Chewbacca's death in Vector Prime was cited as a major reason for revoking the canonical status of so many works.[15]

2000s–present Edit

In February 2008, Devil's Due Publishing published Spooks, a comic book about a U.S. government anti-paranormal investigator/task force created by Larry Hama and Salvatore. Hama created the military characters and plots, and Salvatore covered the monster characters.[16]

In addition to his novels, Salvatore has written for video games. He wrote the story for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC video game Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (2004), working with the design team at Stormfront Studios. The game was published by Atari and was nominated for awards by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and BAFTA. CDS books commissioned him to edit a four book series based on the interactive online EverQuest game.[17] He also wrote the bot chat lines for the Quake III bots.

Salvatore was hired as creative director for the newly created game developer 38 Studios, owned by former baseball player Curt Schilling. He wrote the dialogue and created a backstory spanning 10,000 years for the fantasy game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which was released in 2012[18] and sold over one million units.[19] But three months later, 38 Studios declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. The company laid off its entire staff, including Salvatore, with the $2 million fee for his services never paid.[20] Salvatore said he harbored no ill will toward Schilling, who "didn't do anything nefarious" and also suffered losses.[21]

In 2010, Wizards of the Coast announced a new deal with Salvatore to write six more books featuring Drizzt; the books were released between 2011 and 2016.[1]

Bibliography Edit

Main article: R. A. Salvatore bibliography

Salvatore's most famous and popular character is Drizzt Do'Urden, a drow, or dark elf, portrayed against the stereotypes of his race, who defies a nation of evil enemies with his swordsmanship and courage. He abandons the Underdark, a barren land of unmarked and limitless tunnels where deadly creatures continually lurk. His journey for freedom leads him to the surface where he faces discrimination at every turn because of his dark heritage. Drizzt stumbles along in a harsh world until he finally comes upon friends who understand the kindness of his heart. Together, they fight for justice against sinister enemies who dare to disrupt the peace of Drizzt's newfound homeland.

References Edit

  1. ^ a b c
  2. ^ Whitbrook, James (June 21, 2020). "How R.A. Salvatore Helped Bring Icewind Dale to Games Again for Dark Alliance". Gizmodo Australia. Gizmodo. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  3. ^ Clute, John. And John Grant. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York: ST. Martkin’s Press, 1997
  4. ^ a b c d e . Archived from the original on February 28, 2009.
  5. ^ Salvatore, R. A. (2007). "War and Peace". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 356–358. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  6. ^ Clute, John. And John Grant. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. Publishers Weekly. May 17, 2004, Vol. 251 Issue 20, p23
  7. ^ "- YouTube". YouTube.
  8. ^ Pringle, David eds. St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers. Detroit, Michigan: St. James Press, 1996
  9. ^ Shippey, T. A. ed. Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy vol II. Pasadena, California: Salem Press, 1996.
  10. ^ Varney, Allen (October 1998). "Profiles: R.A. Salvatore". Dragon. Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast (#252): 120.
  11. ^ . Archived from the original on July 16, 2009. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Riggs, Ben (2022). Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons. St. Martin's Press. pp. 83–90, 177–181, 270. ISBN 9781250278043.
  13. ^ a b c Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. pp. 19, 283. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  14. ^
  15. ^ Whitbrook, James (January 15, 2018). "The Expanded Universe Story That Led to Lucasfilm Re-Writing Star Wars Canon". io9. Retrieved May 25, 2022.
  16. ^ . Archived from the original on March 5, 2009.
  17. ^ Raugust, Karen. "*The Expanding World of EverQuest". Publishers Weekly. May 17, 2004, Vol. 251 Issue 20, p23
  18. ^ "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review". February 3, 2012.
  19. ^ Yoon, Andrew (May 24, 2012). "Kingdoms of Amalur needed 3 million sales 'to break even,' RI governor says". Shacknews. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  20. ^ Bai, Matt (April 20, 2013). "Thrown for a Curve in Rhode Island". The New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  21. ^ Craddock, David (October 15, 2014). "The Fall of 38 Studios, and DemonWars: More From R.A. Salvatore". The Escapist. Retrieved January 7, 2015.

External links Edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Anthony Salvatore.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to R. A. Salvatore.


August 25, 2023
salvatore, robert, anthony, salvatore, born, january, 1959, american, author, best, known, legend, drizzt, series, fantasy, novels, forgotten, realms, starring, character, drizzt, urden, also, written, demonwars, saga, series, high, fantasy, novels, several, o. Robert Anthony Salvatore born January 20 1959 is an American author best known for The Legend of Drizzt a series of fantasy novels set in the Forgotten Realms and starring the character Drizzt Do Urden He has also written The DemonWars Saga a series of high fantasy novels several other Forgotten Realms novels and Vector Prime the first novel in the Star Wars The New Jedi Order series He has sold more than 15 million copies of his books in the United States alone 1 and 22 of his titles have been New York Times best sellers 1 2 R A SalvatoreSalvatore in 2006BornRobert Anthony Salvatore 1959 01 20 January 20 1959 age 64 Leominster Massachusetts United StatesOccupationNovelistLanguageEnglishNationalityAmericanPeriod1982 presentGenreFantasy science fictionNotable worksThe Legend of DrizztThe DemonWars SagaSpouseDiane SalvatoreWebsiterasalvatore wbr com Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2 1 1980s 90s 2 2 2000s present 3 Bibliography 4 References 5 External linksEarly life and education Edit Salvatore at a book signing in 2008Salvatore was born in Leominster Massachusetts the youngest of a family of seven A graduate of Leominster High School he has said his high school English teacher was instrumental in his development as a writer During his time at Fitchburg State College he became interested in fantasy after reading J R R Tolkien s The Lord of the Rings given to him as a Christmas gift 3 He developed an interest in fantasy and other literature and changed his major from computer science to journalism 4 earning a Bachelor of Science in communications media in 1981 5 Later he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English 4 Before taking up writing full time he worked as a bouncer 6 He attributes his fierce and vividly described battle scenes to his experience as a bouncer 7 8 In 1997 Salvatore s letters manuscripts and other professional papers were donated to the R A Salvatore collection at Fitchburg State University 4 Career Edit1980s 90s Edit In 1982 Salvatore started writing more seriously developing a manuscript Echoes of the Fourth Magic about a submarine sucked into a post apocalyptic future that resembled a fantasy world 9 He created the setting of Ynis Aielle for the novel writing it in longhand by candlelight 10 Salvatore sent the work to several publishers from 1983 to 1987 including TSR Inc 11 Mary Kirchoff then working for TSR s book department in reviewing the slush pile of unsolicited submissions did not like the story much but did like Salvatore s writing 12 TSR was then looking for an author to write the second book in the Forgotten Realms line and asked Salvatore to audition In July 1987 he won the assignment 12 Much of the Realms setting was then undeveloped and waiting to be fleshed out giving Salvatore relatively free rein He wrote his first published novel The Crystal Shard in just two months and TSR published it in 1988 12 4 13 Salvatore s Icewind Dale trilogy The Crystal Shard Streams of Silver and The Halfling s Gem was a huge hit with over 1 5 million copies sold of the first two novels and the third book hitting The New York Times list of paperback bestsellers 12 Salvatore s first novel published in hardcover was another Drizzt book The Legacy 1992 13 It reached the number 9 slot on The New York Times list of bestsellers in September 1992 12 In 1994 Salvatore signed a three book deal with Warner Books for what became The Crimson Shadow series He and TSR engaged in a dispute afterward TSR s managing editor of the fiction department Brian Thomsen wanted Salvatore to write six additional novels when renewing the contract rather than the three that Salvatore offered Salvatore who had just agreed to write three novels for Warner and had written 14 in the previous six years was unwilling to commit to write so many novels in such a short time at the rate TSR offered he would have to write three novels a year to honor all his obligations to TSR and Warner had he taken TSR s contract as written Thomsen suggested that Salvatore find a ghostwriter a suggestion Salvatore found distasteful Negotiations ultimately fell through TSR was unwilling to budge on its demands and unwilling to put the Drizzt brand on hold while Salvatore finished books for other publishers TSR also possibly believed that the brand was more valuable than any specific author as Thomsen said he would find another author to write Drizzt TSR owned the rights to the Forgotten Realms and all its characters For his part Salvatore felt bullied by the company to which he had contributed such a valuable property and signed a three novel deal with Del Rey instead for what became The DemonWars Saga 12 His last Drizzt novel for some time was 1996 s Passage to Dawn fulfilling his previous contract Salvatore publicly said that if TSR assigned another author to write Drizzt he would never write Drizzt again and would consider Drizzt dead 12 TSR followed through with its threat and chose a new author to write Drizzt stories Mark Anthony completed the Drizzt novel The Shores of Dusk After Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR in 1997 one of its first actions was to fire Thomsen and attempt to mend broken bonds with TSR s authors Wizards shelved Anthony s novel to lure Salvatore back 12 Salvatore returned to the Drizzt series with The Silent Blade 1998 13 which won the Origins Award that year 4 He published several more series of books in the Forgotten Realms campaign world Salvatore wrote Vector Prime which was published in 1999 as the first novel in the Star Wars The New Jedi Order series Vector Prime was controversial among Star Wars fans because its plot included the death of Chewbacca who became the first major character from the original trilogy to be killed in the Star Wars expanded universe novels Many fans thought that Salvatore had made this decision but in fact Lucasfilm and Del Rey s editors had decided they needed to kill a character to sell the new threat of the Yuuzhan Vong the editors wanted to kill Luke Skywalker but were refused permission by Lucasfilm Randy Stradley then an editor at Dark Horse Comics suggested killing Chewbacca and the decision was made 14 Much later after Disney bought the rights to Star Wars in 2012 it declared in 2014 that all Expanded Universe works released before 2014 were non canon Chewbacca s death in Vector Prime was cited as a major reason for revoking the canonical status of so many works 15 2000s present Edit In February 2008 Devil s Due Publishing published Spooks a comic book about a U S government anti paranormal investigator task force created by Larry Hama and Salvatore Hama created the military characters and plots and Salvatore covered the monster characters 16 In addition to his novels Salvatore has written for video games He wrote the story for the PlayStation 2 Xbox and PC video game Forgotten Realms Demon Stone 2004 working with the design team at Stormfront Studios The game was published by Atari and was nominated for awards by the Academy of Interactive Arts amp Sciences and BAFTA CDS books commissioned him to edit a four book series based on the interactive online EverQuest game 17 He also wrote the bot chat lines for the Quake III bots Salvatore was hired as creative director for the newly created game developer 38 Studios owned by former baseball player Curt Schilling He wrote the dialogue and created a backstory spanning 10 000 years for the fantasy game Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning which was released in 2012 18 and sold over one million units 19 But three months later 38 Studios declared bankruptcy and ceased operations The company laid off its entire staff including Salvatore with the 2 million fee for his services never paid 20 Salvatore said he harbored no ill will toward Schilling who didn t do anything nefarious and also suffered losses 21 In 2010 Wizards of the Coast announced a new deal with Salvatore to write six more books featuring Drizzt the books were released between 2011 and 2016 1 Bibliography EditMain article R A Salvatore bibliography Salvatore s most famous and popular character is Drizzt Do Urden a drow or dark elf portrayed against the stereotypes of his race who defies a nation of evil enemies with his swordsmanship and courage He abandons the Underdark a barren land of unmarked and limitless tunnels where deadly creatures continually lurk His journey for freedom leads him to the surface where he faces discrimination at every turn because of his dark heritage Drizzt stumbles along in a harsh world until he finally comes upon friends who understand the kindness of his heart Together they fight for justice against sinister enemies who dare to disrupt the peace of Drizzt s newfound homeland References Edit a b c Wizards of the Coast press release Whitbrook James June 21 2020 How R A Salvatore Helped Bring Icewind Dale to Games Again for Dark Alliance Gizmodo Australia Gizmodo Retrieved August 8 2020 Clute John And John Grant The Encyclopedia of Fantasy New York ST Martkin s Press 1997 a b c d e R A Salvatore Archived from the original on February 28 2009 Salvatore R A 2007 War and Peace In Lowder James ed Hobby Games The 100 Best Green Ronin Publishing pp 356 358 ISBN 978 1 932442 96 0 Clute John And John Grant The Encyclopedia of Fantasy New York St Martin s Press 1997 Publishers Weekly May 17 2004 Vol 251 Issue 20 p23 YouTube YouTube Pringle David eds St James Guide to Fantasy Writers Detroit Michigan St James Press 1996 Shippey T A ed Magill s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy vol II Pasadena California Salem Press 1996 Varney Allen October 1998 Profiles R A Salvatore Dragon Renton Washington Wizards of the Coast 252 120 Project Fanboy Interview Archived from the original on July 16 2009 Retrieved July 7 2008 a b c d e f g h Riggs Ben 2022 Slaying the Dragon A Secret History of Dungeons amp Dragons St Martin s Press pp 83 90 177 181 270 ISBN 9781250278043 a b c Shannon Appelcline 2011 Designers amp Dragons Mongoose Publishing pp 19 283 ISBN 978 1 907702 58 7 Randy Stradley on DarkHorse com message boards Whitbrook James January 15 2018 The Expanded Universe Story That Led to Lucasfilm Re Writing Star Wars Canon io9 Retrieved May 25 2022 Devil s Due Publishing press release Special San Diego Comic Con Announcement July 36 2007 Archived from the original on March 5 2009 Raugust Karen The Expanding World of EverQuest Publishers Weekly May 17 2004 Vol 251 Issue 20 p23 Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning Review February 3 2012 Yoon Andrew May 24 2012 Kingdoms of Amalur needed 3 million sales to break even RI governor says Shacknews Retrieved January 20 2016 Bai Matt April 20 2013 Thrown for a Curve in Rhode Island The New York Times Retrieved January 6 2015 Craddock David October 15 2014 The Fall of 38 Studios and DemonWars More From R A Salvatore The Escapist Retrieved January 7 2015 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Anthony Salvatore Wikiquote has quotations related to R A Salvatore Official website R A Salvatore at Fantastic Fiction R A Salvatore at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database R A Salvatore at Library of Congress with 138 library catalog records Robert A Salvatore Pen amp Paper RPG Database Archived from the original on February 21 2005 Retrieved April 6 2018 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title R A Salvatore amp oldid 1166102691, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.