Birthday: "No writer should minimize the factor that affects everyone, but is beyond control: luck," says John Jakes

John William Jakes (1932-  )
Author

Before there was James Patterson, there was John Jakes. Though he sold his first story at eighteen and regularly published scifi and adventures tales in the pulps through the 1950s (he was an early member of the Sword & Sorcerers’ Guild of America), he spent twenty years in advertising (as did Patterson) before striking out as a full-time writer.

He had an ad man’s eye for popular trends; in the runup to the American Revolution Bicentennial, he produced the first of The Kent Family Chronicles in 1974. The series ran to eight volumes by its conclusion in 1979 and made Jakes the first author to have three books on The New York Times Bestsellers list at once time, in 1975. The series sold some 55 million copies and spawned three television miniseries about the multigenerational story of a colonial American family. Once the series got into paperback they were a ubiquitous presence in every paperback bookseller in America for years.

Jakes followed up with North & South (1982-87) a series set in the American Civil War. It sold a respectable ten million copies and was also turned into several TV productions. His sprawling, large-cast tales reflected his literary influences- Dickens, Balzac, Walter Scott; his prolific output, that of his hero, Georges Simenon.

Less well-known are his science fiction and fantasy novels, which make up the bulk of the 61 books Jakes has published to date. All told, he has had sixteen NYT bestseller listings and has collected five honorary degrees along the way. Still active- his last book came out in 2012- he divides his time between homes in South Carolina and Florida.

John Jakes has 12,291 fans on his Facebook page.