R. A. Salvatore

The author who gave the Realms Drizzt Do'Urden.

Robert Anthony Salvatore, born on January 20, 1959, is an American author best known for The Legend of Drizzt, his Forgotten Realms novels about the drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden. He has sold more than 15 million books in the United States, and 22 of his titles have been New York Times best-sellers.

Quick Facts

Birth name: Robert Anthony Salvatore
Born: 20 January 1959
Birthplace: Leominster, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation: Novelist
Spouse: Diane Salvatore
Education: Fitchburg State University (BS, BA)
Genre: Fantasy, science fiction
Language: English

Facts from the source article.

Background

Salvatore grew up in Leominster, Massachusetts, the youngest of seven children, and turned to fantasy at Fitchburg State College after being given The Lord of the Rings for Christmas, switching his major from computer science to journalism. Before writing full-time he worked as a bouncer, which he credits for his vivid fight scenes. An early manuscript, Echoes of the Fourth Magic, did not win over TSR's Mary Kirchoff, but she liked his writing, and in July 1987 he won an audition to write the second book in the Forgotten Realms line. Much of the setting was still unwritten, so he had a free hand. He wrote The Crystal Shard in two months and TSR published it in 1988; the Icewind Dale Trilogy that followed sold over 1.5 million copies of its first two books.