Darkover: First Contact (Darkover Omnibus: Darkover Landfall & Two to Conquer)
Marion Zimmerwas born in Albany, NY, on June 3, 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. Mrs. Bradley received her B.A. in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, then did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-67.She was a science fiction/fantasy fan from her middle teens, and made her first sale as an adjunct to an amateur fiction contest inFantastic/Amazing Storiesin 1949. She had written as long as she could remember, but wrote only for school magazines and fanzines until 1952, when she sold her first professional short story toVortex Science Fiction. She wrote everything from science fiction to Gothics, but is probably best known for herDarkovernovels.In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited many magazines, amateur and professional, includingMarion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, which she started in 1988. She also edited an annual anthology calledSword and Sorceressfor DAW Books.Over the years she turned more to fantasy; The House Between the Worlds, although a selection of the Science Fiction Book Club, was "fantasy undiluted". She wrote a novel of the women in the Arthurian legends -- Morgan Le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and others -- entitledMists of Avalon, which made the NY Times best seller list both in hardcover and trade paperback, and she also wroteThe Firebrand, a novel about the women of the Trojan War. Her historical fantasy novels,The Forest House,Lady of Avalon, Mists of Avalon are prequels toPriestess of AvalonShe died in Berkeley, California on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major heart attack. She was survived by her brother, Leslie Zimmer; her sons, David Bradley and Patrick Breen; her daughter, Moira Stern; and her grandchildren.