Book description
Here is the tragic tale of the rise and fall of Camelot - but seen
through the eyes of Camelot's women: The devout Gwenhwyfar, Arthur's
Queen; Vivane, High priestess of Avalon and the Lady of the Lake; above
all, Morgaine, possessor of the sight, the wise, the wise-woman fated to
bring ruin on them all...
Marion Zimmer was 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 in
Fantastic/Amazing Stories in 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 to Vortex
Science Fiction. She wrote everything from science fiction to Gothics,
but is probably best known for her Darkover novels.
In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited many magazines,
amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy
Magazine, which she started in 1988. She also edited an annual
anthology called Sword and Sorceress for 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 -
entitled Mists of Avalon, which made the NY Times best seller list
both in hardcover and trade paperback, and she also wrote The
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 to Priestess of Avalon.
She 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.
