Roger Joseph Zelazny (May 13, 1937 – June 14, 1995) was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels focusing on mythology and various religions; he is perhaps best known for The Chronicles of Amber series. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo Award six times (also out of 14 nominations), including two Hugos for novels: the serial novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published as This Immortal (1966), and Lord of Light (1967).
Zelazny was born in Euclid, Ohio, the only child of Polish immigrant Joseph Frank Żelazny and Irish American Josephine Flora Sweet. In high school, he became the editor of the school newspaper and joined the Creative Writing Club. In the fall of 1955, he began attending Western Reserve University and graduated with a B.A. in English in 1959. He was accepted to Columbia University in New York, and he specialized in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, graduating with an M.A. in 1962. His dissertation was titled Two Traditions and Cyril Tourneur: an Examination of Morality and Humor Comedy Conventions in "The Revenger's Tragedy".
Between 1962 and 1969, he worked for the U.S. Social Security Administration in Cleveland, Ohio, and then in Baltimore, Maryland, spending his evenings writing science fiction. He deliberately progressed from short-shorts to novelettes to novellas and finally to novel-length works by 1965. On May 1, 1969, he quit his job to become a full-time writer, and thereafter he concentrated on writing novels in order to maintain his income. During this period, he was an active and vocal member of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, whose members included the writer Jack L. Chalker, in addition to Joe and Jack Haldeman, among others.
His first appearance in a fanzine was with part one of the story "Conditional Benefit" (Thurban 1 #3, 1953); his first professional publication and sale was the fantasy short story "Mr. Fuller's Revolt" (Literary Calvalcade, 1954). As a professional writer, his debut works were the simultaneous publication of "Passion Play" (Amazing, August 1962) and "Horseman!" (Fantastic, August 1962). "Passion Play" was written and sold first. His first story to attract major attention was "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, with cover art by Hannes Bok.
Roger Zelazny was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies.
Zelazny was married twice—first to Sharon Steberl in 1964 (divorced, no children), and then to Judith Alene Callahan in 1966. Before this period, he was engaged to folk singer Hedy West for six months from 1961 to 1962. Roger and Judith had two sons, Devin and Trent (1976–2024), who was an author of crime fiction, and a daughter, Shannon. At the time of his death, Roger and Judith were separated, and he was living with author Jane Lindskold.
Raised as a Catholic by his parents, Zelazny later declared himself a lapsed Catholic and remained that way for the rest of his life. "I did have a strong Catholic background, but I am not a Catholic. Somewhere in the past, I believe I answered in the affirmative once for strange and complicated reasons. But I am not a member of any organized religion."
Zelazny died, aged 58, in Santa Fe on June 16, 1995, of kidney failure secondary to colorectal cancer. At the time of his death, he had been a resident of Santa Fe for twenty years.
In his stories, Zelazny frequently portrayed characters from myth, depicted in the modern or a future world. Mythological traditions that his fiction borrowed from include the following:
Chinese mythology, in Lord Demon (with Jane Lindskold)
Egyptian mythology, in Creatures of Light and Darkness
Greek mythology, in ...And Call Me Conrad
Hindu mythology, in Lord of Light
Navajo mythology, in Eye of Cat
Norse mythology, in The Mask of Loki
Psychoanalysis, Arthurian mythos, Norse mythology and Kabbalah, in The Dream Master
Additionally, elements from Norse, Japanese and Irish mythology, Arthurian legend, and real history appear in The Chronicles of Amber series. The novel A Night in the Lonesome October involves the Cthulhu Mythos, a shared fictional universe based on the work of H. P. Lovecraft.
Another recurring motif of Zelazny's is the "absent father" (or father-figure). Again, this motif occurs most notably in the Amber novels: in the first Amber series, the protagonist Corwin searches for his lost, god-like father Oberon; in the second series, which focuses on Corwin's son Merlin (not to be confused with the Arthurian Merlin), Corwin himself is strangely missing. This somewhat Freudian theme runs through almost every Zelazny novel to some degree. The novels Roadmarks, Doorways in the Sand, Changeling, Madwand and A Dark Traveling; the short stories "Dismal Light", "Godson" and "The Keys to December"; and the Alien Speedway series all feature main characters who are either searching for or have lost their fathers. Zelazny's father, Joseph, died unexpectedly in 1962 and never knew of his son's successes as a writer.