Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan is the pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr. (born October 17, 1948), under which he is best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series. 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.

Conan stories
Jordan is one of several writers who has written Conan pastiches:


 * Conan the Defender (novel) Tor 1982
 * Conan the Invincible (novel) Tor 1982
 * Conan the Triumphant (novel) Tor 1983
 * Conan the Unconquered (novel) Tor 1983
 * Conan the Magnificent (novel) Tor 1984
 * Conan the Destroyer (novel) Tor 1984
 * Conan the Victorious (novel) Tor 1984

Although some bibliographies list it, Conan: King of Thieves does not exist. It was the original title of the second Conan movie. Robert Jordan had already been hired to do the novelization and Tor had already applied for an ISBN when the title was changed to Conan the Destroyer. 

They were packed into two separate volumes:
 * The Conan Chronicles (omnibus) Tor 1995
 * The Conan Chronicles II (omnibus) Legend 1997