 Del Rey Editor-in-Chief Betsy Mitchell was the first to alert us to the fact that fantasy author David Eddings died on 2 June 2009 at his home in Carson City, Nevada. Born in Spokane, Washington, on 7 July 1931, Del Rey was his main publisher.
Eddings received his BA from Reed College in 1954, and his MA from the University of Washington in 1961, after which he was drafted into the US Army. After the Army, he was a college lecturer, but left the post due to a disagreement over his pay. He moved to Denver and began work on his first novel, High Hunt (1973). The book was a contemporary adventure, and he returned to Washington to continue writing unsuccessful adventure novels. He switched to fantasy after realizing The Lord of the Rings had been reprinted more than 70 times.
He is best known for his Belgariad quintology, which tells the story of the recovery of the Orb of Aldur and the coming of age of Garion, an orphaned farmboy. The five books in the series are Pawn of Prophecy (1982), Queen of Sorcery (1982), Magician's Gambit (1983), Castle of Wizardry (1984), and Enchanters' End Game (1984). That series was followed by the sequel quintology The Malloreon, comprised of Guardians of the West (1987), King of the Murgos (1988), Demon Lord of Karanda (1988), Sorceress of Darshiva (1989), and The Seeress of Kell (1991).
He also wrote the three-book Elenium series and the Tamuli trilogy.
In the 1990s, Eddings wrote three Belgariad prequel novels with Leigh, his wife: Belgarath the Sorcerer (1995), Polgara the Sorceress (1997), and The Rivan Codex (1998). With Leigh, he also wrote the four-book Dreamers series earlier this decade, and the stand-alone novel The Redemption of Althalus (2000).
Graeme Neill, writing on The Bookseller, quotes Jane Johnson, Eddings' UK publisher from 1990 to 2006: "The Voyager team and I were immensely sad to hear the news. The arrival of a new Eddings novel used to be a grand event for the whole division. In the '90s, each one was guaranteed a Number One position on the Sunday Times hardback bestseller list, selling 100,000 copies apiece.
"But his huge worldwide success and fame did not change Dave at all. In his dealings with me, and with Joy Chamberlain, his long-time editor, he was unfailingly self-effacing on the subject of his success, once saying: 'I'm never going to be in danger of getting a Nobel Prize for literature, I'm a storyteller, not a prophet. I'm just interested in a good story.'
"He was a towering force of modern commercial fiction, a master of the epic, and a delight to work with. We'll miss him tremendously."
Eddings' wife and sometime co-author Leigh died in February 2007 (see this article).
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