Roger Joseph Zelazny (May 13, 1937 – June 14, 1995)[2] was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber.

[3] Zelazny was born in Euclid, Ohio, the only child of Polish immigrant Joseph Frank Żelazny and Irish-American Josephine Flora Sweet.

thesis was entitled 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.

[4] 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!

Roadmarks, Doorways in the Sand, Changeling, Madwand, A Dark Traveling; the short stories "Dismal Light", "Godson", "The Keys to December"; and the Alien Speedway series all feature main characters who are either searching for or have lost their fathers.

Zelazny became expert with the épée in college, and thus began a lifelong study of several different martial arts, including judo, aikido (which he later taught as well, having gained a black belt), tai chi, and baguazhang.

In Roadmarks, a novel about a road system that links all possible times, places and histories, the chapters that feature the protagonist are all titled "One".

Lord of Light, perhaps one of his most famous works, is written in the classic style of a mythic fantasy, while it is established early in the book that the story itself takes place on a colonized planet.

"[11] In 1967 Algis Budrys listed Zelazny, Delany, J. G. Ballard, and Brian Aldiss as "an earthshaking new kind of" writer, and leaders of the New Wave.

Martin, Shannon Zelazny, Warren Lapine, Steven Brust, Kelly McCullough, Jane Lindskold, Steve Perry, Gerald Hausman, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Michael H. Hanson, Mark Rich, Gio Clairval, Edward J. McFadden III, Theodore Krulik, Shariann Lewitt, and Jay O'Connell.

[3] In addition, Zelazny was the Worldcon Guest of Honor at Discon II in Washington, D.C. in 1974, and won an Inkpot Award for lifetime achievement at San Diego Comic-Con in 1993.