Zelazny was born in
Euclid, Ohio, the only child of
Polish immigrant Joseph Frank Zelazny (
Żelazny, Polish for "iron" or "cast-iron" -
adjective) and
Irish-American Josephine Flora Sweet. In high school, Roger Zelazny was 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 specialized in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, graduating with an M.A. in 1962. Between 1962 and 1969 he worked for the Social Security Administration in Cleveland and then in Baltimore, 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 1st, 1969, he quit to become a full-time writer, and thereafter concentrated on writing novels in order to maintain his income.
His first fanzine appearance was part one of the story "Conditional Benefit" (Thurban 1 #3, 1953) whereas 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.
Zelazny had a rare gift for conceiving and portraying worlds with plausible magic systems, powers, and supernatural beings. His captivating descriptions of the nuts and bolts of magical workings in his imagined worlds set his fantasy writing apart from otherwise similar authors. His science fiction was highly influenced by mythology, poetry, including the French, British, and American classics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and by wisecracking
detective fiction. His novels and short stories often involved characters from myth, depicted in the modern world. He was also apt to include modern elements, such as cigarettes and references to
Marxism, in his fantasy worlds. Novels such as
Jack of Shadows and
Changeling revolve around a tension between two worlds, one based on magic and the other on technology.
Zelazny was considered one of the leading lights of the "
New Wave" movement in science fiction, which changed the face of the genre in the 1960s. He incorporated elements from literary novels of the mainstream into his fiction, and experimented with allusion, lyricism, and mythic imagery. The mythological traditions his fiction borrowed from include:
* Classical
Greek mythology, in
This Immortal
*
Native American mythology, in
Eye of Cat
*
Hindu mythology, in
Lord of Light
*
Egyptian mythology and some
Greek mythology, in
Creatures of Light and Darkness
* and even (on a more humorous note)
Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in
A Night in the Lonesome October
Additionally, elements from
Norse mythology, Japanese mythology and history, and numerous other traditions appear in works such as
The Chronicles of Amber (a popular ten novel series) and "
24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai".
A frequent theme is gods or people who become gods. Another recurrent theme is the "absent father" (or father-figure). This occurs most notably in the
Amber novels: in the first Amber series, Corwin searches for his absent, god-like father Oberon; in the second series, it is Corwin himself who is the absent father. This theme recurs in
Roadmarks and
Doorways in the Sand (in the latter, the main character's parents are dead but his uncle fills the role of the "absent father").
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, some of whose works were anthologized in
Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies.
Zelazny died in 1995 of kidney failure secondary to colorectal cancer. Other sources have incorrectly indicated lung cancer.
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