Robert Jordan (1948 – 2007)

He is best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series, but Jordan also published historical fiction using the pseudonym Reagan O'Neal, a western as Jackson O'Reilly, and dance criticism as Chang Lung. Jordan was also one of several writers who has written Conan the Barbarian stories.

Jordan was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and holds an undergraduate degree in physics from The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina. He is a history buff and served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army.

It has been speculated that the pen name is from the main character of Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, but Robert Jordan has since clarified on his blog that his pen names have all been chosen from three lists of names using his real initials and that one of his pen names managed to contain all three of his initials in both the first name and the surname.