Stephen R. Donaldson

Dennis Wilson Wise (University of Arizona)

Ed. by Dimitra Fimi, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 13 May 1947

Places

Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

A prolific author of fantasy, science fiction, and mystery, Stephen R. Donaldson (1947- –) is best known for his three separate Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and his Gap sequence, a highly original blend of space opera and cyberpunk. At heart a humanist, Donaldson’s major themes include freedom, power, existential responsibility, and “Christian archetypes” such as guilt, sin, and redemption.

Early Life and Education

The parents of Stephen R. Donaldson were Presbyterian missionaries and preachers—a branch of fundamentalist Christianity that, as an offshoot of Calvinism, believed in predestination and biblical literalism. When Donaldson was three years old, …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2715 words

Citation: Wise, Dennis Wilson. "Stephen R. Donaldson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 October 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14121, accessed 23 April 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here