Robert Jordan was born in 1948 in Charleston,
South Carolina. He taught himself to read when he was four with the
incidental aid of a twelve-years-older brother, and was tackling
Mark Twain and Jules Verne by five. He is a graduate of The
Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in
physics. He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army; among
his decorations are the Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze oak
leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with "V" and bronze oak leaf cluster,
and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with palm. A history buff, he
has also written dance and theater criticism and enjoyed the
outdoor sports of hunting, fishing, and sailing, and the indoor
sports of poker, chess, pool, and pipe collecting.
Robert Jordan began writing in 1977 and went on to write The
Wheel of Time®, one of the most important and best selling series
in the history of fantasy publishing with over 14 million copies
sold in North America, and countless more sold abroad.
Robert Jordan died on September 16, 2007, after a courageous
battle with the rare blood disease amyloidosis.
Brandon Sanderson is the bestselling author of
books including Warbreaker, Elantris, The Way of Kings, and The
Mistborn Trilogy-Mistborn, The Well of Ascension and The Hero of
Ages. He has also written Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, a
book for middle-grade readers, and is completing the final books in
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series-The Gathering Storm, Towers of
Midnight and A Memory of Light-based on Jordan's notes and
material. Sanderson teaches writing at Brigham Young University. He
lives in Utah.