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Marion Zimmer Bradley

Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley (June 3, 1930 – September 25, 1999) was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series, often with a feminist outlook. Her first child, David R. Bradley, and her brother, Paul Edwin Zimmer were also published science fiction & fantasy authors in their own right.

Biography

Born on a farm in Albany, New York, during the Great Depression, she began writing in 1949 and sold her first story to Vortex magazine in 1952. She was married to Robert Alden Bradley from October 26, 1949 until their divorce on May 19, 1964. They had a son, David Robert Bradley (1950–2008). During the 1950s she was introduced to the cultural and campaigning lesbian group the Daughters of Bilitis. After her divorce she married numismatist Walter H. Breen on June 3, 1964. They separated in 1979 but remained married, and continued a business relationship and lived on the same street for over a decade. They officially divorced on May 9, 1990, the year Breen was arrested on child molestation charges.[1] She had known about Breen's sexual interests and previously accepted his sexual affair with a 14 year old boy.[2] Her daughter by Breen, Moira Stern, is a professional harpist and singer. Walter and Marion also had a son, Patrick Breen.

In 1965 Bradley graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. Afterward, she moved to Berkeley, California, to pursue graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley between 1965 and 1967. In 1966, she helped found and named the Society for Creative Anachronism and was involved in developing several local groups, including in New York after her move to Staten Island.

Religion

In the 1980s Bradley was a neopagan but by the 1990s she was a devout Episcopalian telling an interviewer: "I just go regularly to the Episcopalian church. . . . That pagan thing....I feel that I've gotten past it. I would like people to explore the possibilities."

After her death her co-author confirmed that for a number of years Bradley had indeed been a faithful Christian.
More for Wikipedia...

More websites:

• The Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust
• Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon Series: Reincarnations
• Bibliography on SciFan
• Marion Zimmer Bradley at the Internet Book Database of Fiction
• Marion Zimmer Bradley at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Photo
• Works by Marion Zimmer Bradley at Project Gutenberg

Books: