About Gary

Gary Jennings led a paradoxically picaresque life. On one hand, he was a man of acknowledged intellect and erudition. His novels were international best sellers, praised around the world for their stylish prose, lively wit and adventurously bawdy spirit. They were also massive - often topping 500,000 words - and widely acclaimed for the years of research he put into each one, both in libraries and in the field.

Where the erudition came from, however, was something of a mystery.

The family moved to New Jersey in the early 40's and he graduated from Eastside High School (of "Lean on Me" fame) in Paterson, N. J. He attended the Art Students League in Manhattan, but from that point all formal education ceased. Jennings was completely self-educated.

Responding to an ad in a New York newspaper at age 17, he was hired as an office boy in an advertising firm. It was a steady climb up the ladder in advertising; he thought he might use his artistic talent, but ended as an Account Executive.

After a break to serve in the Korean War where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal - a decoration rarely given to soldier-reporters and a personal citation by South Korean President Syngman Rhee for his efforts on behalf of war orphans, he returned briefly to advertising. It was during this period that he met Bill W.

The desire to write was so great that he decided to cut the strings and write full time. New York was not an affordable place and he had always wanted to go to Mexico ... so he did. He left everything and moved to San Miguel de Allende. There he continued his free lance writing, wrote 10 children's books, edited Gent & Dude magazine, and wrote two novels.

Gary - the novelist

During his twelve-year stint in Mexico, Gary became fascinated with the Aztecs. He learned Spanish, haunted archeological digs and immersed himself in the Aztec history and culture. There, he wrote, Aztec his breakthrough novel. He wrote about the Aztec world with vivid intimacy and with an unprecedented authenticity and with literary grace. He brought something more to that story, something that would inform all four of his subsequent novels: an exotic, often erotic wit, based on characters possessed by an irrepressible Rabelaisian lust for life, stylish charm and zany joie de vivre. His men and women were eccentric, roguish, unabashedly bawdy. Jennings enlivened their adventures with an energetic prose, an electrifying power and a narrative drive that many believed unique to historical fiction.

Leaving Mexico, he stayed briefly in Texas, then in Marin County, Ca and finally back home to the Shenandoah Valley in Buena Vista, Virginia. He stayed there until the mid 90's and then returned to New Jersey to be near his oldest friends.

. . . more about Gary

Garry Jennings literally roamed the world in the course of researching The Journeyer, for which he faithfully duplicated the travels of his hero, Marco Polo. He did the same in the process of researching Spangle, during which he traveled with a circus troupe. He went back to Europe to continue his research and finished Raptor, a book on the Goths. Demand for more of Aztec finally convinced him to write Aztec Autumn and to prepare the material for then unnamed books on the Aztecs.

During l998 and l999 Gary collaborated with a composer and lyricist and wrote a musical play based on the life of Joe Hill, a union organizer his father had met in Paterson, N.J. He also compiled research for a book set amid the hanging gardens of Babylon and was putting together a book of his short stories.

Gary died on Friday the 13th of February l999, passing quietly while watching late night TV. He had had a dinner party planned for the next evening with his agent, his doctor and his two best friends. He is greatly missed by friends and fans alike.