Pen name Jay Scotland Name John Jakes Occupation Writer Role Writer | Nationality American Spouse Rachel Jakes (m. 1951) Period 1950–present Movies The Bastard, The Rebels | |
Notable works The Kent Family ChroniclesNorth and South trilogy Children Ellen Jakes, J. Michael Jakes, Victoria Jakes, Andrea Jakes Books The Kent Family Chronicles, The Bastard, North and South, Love and War, California Gold Similar People Jerry Pournelle, David Gerrold, George Alec Effinger, William Thomas Quick, Marcia Muller Profiles | ||
Meet john jakes
John William Jakes (born March 31, 1932) is an American writer, best known for American historical fiction. He has used the pen name Jay Scotland.
Contents
- Meet john jakes
- Author john jakes 53 delivers commencement address at depauw university
- Early life and education
- Writing career
- Personal
- The Kent Family Chronicles
- The North and South trilogy
- The Crown Family Saga
- Other
- Brak the Barbarian
- Dark Gate
- Dragonard
- Planet of the Apes
- Other novels
- Collections
- Childrens books
- Nonfiction
- Adaptations
- References
Author john jakes 53 delivers commencement address at depauw university
Early life and education
Jakes was born in Chicago, Illinois. He first sold stories to pulp magazines while still in college in the early 1950s. Jakes studied creative writing at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, graduating in 1953. He then earned an M.A. in American literature from The Ohio State University. He and Rachel, to whom had been married for 13 months at the time, appeared on the game show "Beat the Clock" on August 23, 1952. Although they failed to complete the Bonus Round, Rachel won for them a Sylvania "Jefferson" 20" screen television set.
Writing career
Thrilling Wonder Stories, edited by Sam Merwin, published two 1949–1950 letters from Jakes and two of his stories were published in pulp magazines edited by Howard Browne late in 1950, The Dreaming Trees (Fantastic Adventures, November) and "Your Number is Up!" (Amazing Stories, December). ISFDB catalogs 28 more speculative fiction stories published 1951 to 1953. Jakes published dozens of stories and several novels during the twenty years following completion of college, many of them fantasy fiction, science fiction and westerns and other sorts of historical fiction, while working in the advertising industry. In 1971, he began to write full-time.
During this time, he was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s and led by Lin Carter. The eight original members were self-selected by fantasy credentials alone. They sought to promote the popularity and respectability of the "Sword and Sorcery" subgenre (such as Brak the Barbarian stories by Jakes).
Jakes gained widespread popularity with the publication of his Kent Family Chronicles, which became a bestselling American Bicentennial Series of books in the mid to late 1970s, selling 55 million copies. He has since published several more popular works of historical fiction, most dealing with American history, including the North and South trilogy about the U.S. Civil War, which sold 10 million copies and was adapted as an ABC-TV miniseries.
Personal
Jakes lives in Florida with his wife, Rachel, to whom he has been married since 1951. They have four grown children: Andrea, Ellen, J. Michael, and Victoria.
The Kent Family Chronicles
The North and South trilogy
The Crown Family Saga
Other
Brak the Barbarian
Dark Gate
Dragonard
Planet of the Apes
Other novels
Collections
Children's books
Nonfiction
Adaptations
The Bastard was adapted as a television mini-series by Universal Pictures Television as the first offering of the highly successful syndicated package, Operation Prime Time (1978). It was followed by The Rebels (1979) and The Seekers (1979). The North and South trilogy was made into three mini-series on ABC in the 1980s and 1990s.