Jo Clayton
Patricia Jo Clayton, born on February 15, 1939, in Modesto, California, was an influential science fiction and fantasy author. After studying English at the University of Southern California, she began her career as a schoolteacher before transitioning to writing in the late 1970s. Clayton is best known for her Diadem series, which features strong female protagonists equipped with empowering objects, drawing inspiration from the action-adventure tradition established by early female writers in the genre. Her works evolved through various trilogies, including the Duel of Sorcery, Soul Drinker, and Wild Magic series, showcasing her growth as a writer and her ability to craft intricate fantasy worlds.
Though her writing often contained elements of magic and adventure, Clayton's later works became more ambitious in style and content. Despite facing personal challenges, including a battle with advanced bone cancer, she continued to write until her health declined. Clayton passed away on February 13, 1998, in Portland, Oregon, with her hospital expenses supported by a fund established by her peers and fans. Her legacy remains significant in the realm of speculative fiction, particularly for her contributions to the representation of women in the genre.
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Jo Clayton
Writer
- Born: February 15, 1939
- Birthplace: Modesto, California
- Died: February 13, 1998
- Place of death: Portland, Oregon
Biography
Patricia Jo Clayton was born on February 15, 1939, on a homestead in Modesto, California; her parents were farmers. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, before completing her education at the University of Southern California, from which she graduated with a B.A. in English. She was a schoolteacher in Bell, California, in the early 1960’s before she became a novice in a teaching order of nuns. The order sent her to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she taught in a junior high school and also worked as a pet portraitist. Although she eventually left the order, she never married.
Clayton began publishing novels in the late 1970’s, beginning with the Diadem sequence of science fiction novels launched with Diadem from the Stars. The series, whose central thread was continued in Lamarchos, Irsud, Maeve, Star Hunters, The Nowhere Hunt, Ghosthunt, The Snares of Ibex, and Quester’s Endgame, equipped its female protagonist with the eponymous empowering object so that she could perform as an adventurer and superhero. The series was a typical example of the kind of action-adventure science-fantasy pioneered in the pulp era by such female writers as C. L. Moore and Leigh Brackett. This genre was feminized in the 1960’s by such writers as Marion Zimmer Bradley and Andre Norton; its speculative element was lightly-jargonized magic, and when commodified fantasy became securely established as a popular genre, Clayton gradually forsook the apologetic devices featured in the Diadem series. She had also used these devices in such spinoff exercises as the Shadith’s Quest trilogy—comprising Shadowplay, Shadowspear, and Shadowkill—Shadow of the Warmaster and the trilogy comprising Skeen’s Leap, Skeen’s Return, and Skeen’s Search.
Clayton’s purer fantasies are arranged into a sequence of trilogies whose contents grew gradually more enterprising as the author became more practiced in the use of that kind of template. The Duel of Sorcery trilogy comprises Moongather,Moonscatter, and Changer’s Moon; the trilogy comprising Dancer’s Rise, Serpent Waltz, and Dance down the Stars is a sequel. The Soul Drinker trilogy, which is conspicuously darker in tone, comprises Drinker of Souls, Blue Magic, and A Gathering of Stones. The Wild Magic trilogy consists of Wild Magic, Wildfire, and The Magic Wars, and it is more extravagant in both content and style. The Shadowsong trilogy, comprising Fire in the Sky, The Burning Ground, and Crystal Heat, is similarly feverish.
While she was working on the Drums of Chaos trilogy, Clayton discovered that she was suffering from advanced bone cancer. Drum Warning and Drum Calls are entirely hers—the latter was completed while she was hospitalized—but Drum into Silence was written by Kevin Murphy in accordance with the plot she had mapped out. She had moved to Portland, Oregon, in the 1980’s, and she died there at Good Samaritan Hospital on February 13, 1998. Her hospital expenses were partly met by an emergency fund set up by fellow writers and fans in the Pacific Northwest.