RA Salvatore biography

Robert Anthony Salvatore was born in Leominster, Massachusetts on January 20, 1959. A graduate of Leominster High School, Salvatore attended Fitchburg State College to study computerscience, however, he changed his major to journelism after recieving a copy of The Lord of the Rings as a Christmas gift. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications from Fitchburg State College in 1981, then returned to study for the degree he really wanted, the Bachelor of Arts in English. His writing career began in earnest in 1982 when the manuscript that would later become Echoes of the Forth Magic was penned, and his first novel published The Crystal Shard, the first of the Icewind Dale Trilogy, was released in 1988 however, it wasn't until 1990 that Salvatore became a writer full time.His books have been translated into numerous foreign languages including German, Italian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Yiddish, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Czech, and French and he consistently appears on The New York Times best sellers list selling in excess of 10 million copies of his multi-volume series including The Dark Elf Trilogy, Paths of Darkness, The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, and The Cleric Quintet. He is noted for his intense and descriptive battle scenes which have been attributed to his history in boxing and his work as a bouncer. R. A. Salvatore enjoys an ever-expanding and extremely loyal following and counts Ian Fleming, Arthur Conan Doyle, Fritz Leiber, and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien amongst his literary influences. Still a resident of Massachusetts, Salvatore lives there with his wife Diane, and their three children, Bryan, Geno, and Caitlin and numerous pets.