L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the author of more than 80 novels – primarily science fiction
and fantasy, including the long-running, best-selling Saga of Recluce, the Imager
Portfolio, and The Grand Illusion, as well as nearly 50 short stories, and numerous
technical and economic articles. His novels have included ten national bestsellers
and have sold millions of copies in the U.S. and world-wide, and have been
translated into German, Polish, Dutch, Czech, Russian, Bulgarian, French, Spanish,
Italian, Hebrew, and Swedish.
He has been a delivery boy; a lifeguard; an unpaid radio disc jockey; a U.S. Navy
pilot; a market research analyst; a real estate agent; director of research for a political
campaign; legislative assistant and staff director for U.S. Congressmen; Director of
Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency; a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues; a
college lecturer and writer in residence; and unpaid treasurer of a civic music arts
association.
Shortly after his tours as a Navy amphibious officer and then as a search and rescue
pilot, he returned to Denver as a market research analyst and economist, which
experiences generated the idea for his first published story – “The Great American
Economy” – printed in ANALOG in 1973. He then pursued a career in another kind
of fantasy by becoming the Legislative Assistant for Congressman Bill Armstrong in
Washington, D.C., and later staff director for Congressman Ken Kramer. During his
years in Washington, he attempted to regain some hold on reality by writing
increasingly more science fiction. Not totally by coincidence, his first novel was
published while he was serving as the head of Legislation and Congressional
Relations at the U.S. EPA during the Reagan-Burford controversies. There he was
responsible for coordinating EPA’s response to Congressional inquiries and hearings
and for accepting midnight telephone calls from various individuals terming
themselves journalists. This experience led to the writing of The Green Progression,
a book almost totally factual and yet termed more fantastic than any of his fantasy
novels.
Along the way, Mr. Modesitt has weathered eight children, a fondness for three-piece
suits [which has deteriorated into a love of vests], a brown Labrador, a white
cockapoo, an energetic Shih-tzu, five scheming dachshunds, a capricious spaniel, a
sweetly crazy Aussie-Saluki, and various assorted pet rodents. Finally, in 1989, to
escape nearly twenty years of occupational captivity in Washington, D.C., he moved
to New Hampshire. There he married a lyric soprano, and he and his wife Carol
moved to Cedar City, Utah, in 1993, where she directs the voice and opera program
at Southern Utah University and he continues to create and manage chaos, largely but
not entirely of the fictional type.
