Neil Gaiman information. Neil Gaiman

25.07.2020

And other talented individuals.

But do not forget that when you go to a bookstore, and on a modern shelf you can find something interesting and bewitching, not all writers present boring stories to the audience using hackneyed clichés.

In 2001, Neil Gaiman surprised literary critics and book lovers with the release of his landmark work, American Gods. This book brings together concepts from all of Neil's previous writings. The book introduces the reader to an outsider named Shadow. The protagonist of the manuscript is released from prison and learns the terrible news - his wife Laura and friend Robbie died in an accident.

Thrown to the sidelines of life, the Shadow tries to start life from scratch and contacts Mr. Wednesday, who is the incarnation of the god Odin. Ultimately, the protagonist learns that the gods of the Old World inhabit America, but since people do not believe in them, they have lost their former power. Odin's main goal is to gather all the "old" gods in order to fight the "new" ones - the Internet, mass media and other manifestations of technology. It is noteworthy that Neil Gaiman received the Hugo (2002) and Nebula (2002) awards for this book.

In 2002, the children's story Coraline was released, based on which the box-office cartoon Coraline in Nightmare Land (directed by Henry Selick) was released.

Six years later, Neil Gaiman wrote another children's book (The Graveyard Story) without losing his zest: the literary genius once again endowed his character with an original name, this time a boy named Nobody Owens came to the attention of readers. The main character's parents are killed, and the boy is left alone: Nobody escaped because he crawled into the cemetery and hid from the criminals.

But the family of ghosts living near the graves could not remain indifferent to the fate of the baby, so the ghosts of Mr. and Mrs. Owens took Nick under guardianship. Also, an extravagant vampire named Siles took care of the child. By the way, this idea came to Neil Gaiman spontaneously: one day he thought that he could write something similar to The Jungle Book, moving the scene to the land of eternal rest.

Neil Gaiman published the collections of short stories Smoke and Mirrors (1998), Fragile Things (2006), and worked as a screenwriter for famous TV shows. He wrote two episodes of the TV series Doctor Who, and also wrote the script for the films Beowulf (2007) and Mirror Mask (2005).

Personal life

Neil does not like to share the details of his personal life with journalists, according to media reports, the master of the word was married twice. Little is said about the first marriage with Mary McGrath, but it is known that the writer has three children from Mary.

Neil's second chosen one was the singer and poet Amanda Palmer, who participated in the musical group The Dresden Dolls. The lovers signed in the winter of 2011, and in 2015 they gave birth to their first child, son Anthony.

Neil Gaiman is known to be a big fan of the social network

English science fiction writer and screenwriter Neil Gaiman, author of numerous graphic novels and comics. Gaiman's most famous works are Stardust, American Gods, Coraline. Many of the writer's works have been filmed. Neil Gaiman is also the recipient of the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker and other literary awards.

Biography of Neil Gaiman

Neil Richard McKinnon Gaiman Born November 10, 1960 in the English city of Portsmouth, in a family of Polish origin. The father of the future writer was a businessman, and his mother was a pharmacist. Neil Gaiman is the eldest of three children in the family, he has younger sisters Claire and Lizzie. He learned to read early, as a child his favorite works were Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. Among other favorite authors of the writer are Ursula le Guin, Edgar Alan Poe, Roger Zelazny, Robert Heinlein, R. Kipling and others.

In 1977, Neil Gaiman graduated from high school and decided to pursue a career in journalism. He translated interviews and wrote book reviews, and Neil's first professional publication was the fantasy story Featherquest, published in 1984 in Imagine Magazine.

That same year, Neil Gaiman wrote his first book: a biography of Duran Duran. The first edition was sold out rather quickly, although the author himself was not too pleased with his work. Soon after, his book Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion was published, an excellent study of writer Douglas Adams and his book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In 1987, Neil Gaiman decided to end his career as a journalist. He explained this by the fact that British newspapers too often pass off fiction as truth.

Neil Gaiman's writing career

Neil Gaiman became friends with Alan Moore, a writer known for his work in comics. Gaiman also began creating graphic novels for several publishers. One of the most successful works was the series The Sandman, awarded World Fantasy Award.

In 1990, he co-wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchet, which spent 17 weeks on the bestseller list. In 1996, the novel in the genre of urban fantasy "The Door" was published, which became the author's first "solo" book.

Neil Gaiman's most famous work was American Gods, published in 2001. The book has won several prestigious literary awards, including the Hugo and the Nebula. Later, Neil Gaiman published the novels Coraline, Anansi's Children, and The Graveyard Story. In 2008, in collaboration with Michael Reeves, the book "Interworld" was written.

Many of the author's books are reflected in the cinema. In addition, several times Neil Gaiman worked directly on the scripts. In 2007, the film Stardust was released, based on the writer's novel of the same name. In 2009, the animated film Coraline in the Land of Nightmares was filmed, based on the 2002 book Coraline. In 2011, information appeared about the upcoming film adaptation of the novel American Gods. The film is scheduled for release in 2013.

Neil Gaiman's personal life

Since 1992 the writer lives in the USA. He moved to America to be near his first wife, Mary McGrath. In marriage, the couple had three children - Michael, Holly and Madeleine. Later, the union of the writer and his wife broke up.

Neil Gaiman is currently married to singer and actress Amanda Palmer, lead singer of the Dresden Dolls. In 2015, the couple had a son, Anthony. Neil and Amanda call their marriage “open”, which means the legal opportunity for both spouses to have additional sexual relations with other people.

Bibliography of Neil Gaiman

Novels
"Good Omens" (Good Omens, 1990) co-written with Terry Pratchett
"Behind the door" (Neverwhere, 1996, novelization of own script)
"Stardust" (stardust, 1998)
"American Gods" (American Gods, 2001)
Coraline (Coraline, 2002)
"Children of Anansi" (Anansi Boys, 2005)
Interworld (2008) co-written with Michael Reeves
"The Graveyard Story" (The Graveyard Book, 2008)

Filmography of Neil Gaiman

Sandman
History of the cemetery
Hansel and Gretel
The Thing About Cassandra
Good Omens (mini-series, 2019 - ...)
American Gods (TV series 2017 - ...)
The Plausible Stories of Neil Gaiman (mini-series 2016)
Lucifer (TV series 2015 - ...)
Marvel Knights: Eternals (TV series 2014 - ...)
Marvel Knights: Eternals (Video 2014)
A Dream of Flying (2013)
Neil Gaiman's We Can Get Them for You Wholesale (2013)
A Calendar of Tales: February Tale (2013)
A Calendar of Tales: October Tale (2013)
The Lingerer (2012)
Nicholas Was (2010)
82nd Academy Awards (TV Movie 2010)
The 82nd Annual Academy Awards
Statuesque (TV Movie 2009)
Ten Minute Stories (TV series 2009)
It Was a Dark and Silly Night (2008)
Beowulf (2007)
Stardust (2007)
Doctor Who (TV series 2005 - ...)
Mirror Mask (2005)
A Short Film About John Bolton (2003)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Doorway (mini-series, 1996)
Babylon 5 (TV series 1994–1998)

Date of Birth: 09.11.1960

Famous English and American science fiction writer, author of graphic novels and popular comics, screenwriter. Winner of numerous awards.

Neil Gaiman was born in Portsmouth (UK). The writer's father worked in a chain of grocery stores, which was founded by the writer's grandfather, his mother worked as a pharmacist. Neil Gaiman learned to read at the age of 4 and has been fond of fantasy literature since childhood. The writer's parents were adherents of the teachings of Dianetics, and his father held a prominent position in the Church of Scientology, which even caused some problems when Gaiman entered school. Gaiman himself, however, did not become a follower of Scientology. After leaving school, the future writer did not go to university, deciding to take up journalism and literature. Initially, these classes did not bring success, and only in the early 80s did his interviews begin to appear. In 1984, Gaiman's first short story "Featherquest" was published, as well as a biography of Duran Duran compiled by him. In 1985, Gaiman entered into his first marriage and had a son. The beginning of Gaiman's work in the comics industry also dates back to this time. Neil's first foray into this field was issue #488 of 2000AD, released in 1986. For several years, Gaiman collaborated on various projects as a guest writer, and released a number of graphic novels. In the late 1980s, his book Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion, about author Douglas Adams and his book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was published.

The real success came to Gaiman in 1989, when his comic book The Sandman began to appear, which became very popular and won a number of awards. In 1990, Gaiman's first novel, Good Omens, was published, co-authored with. The novel became a bestseller and Gaiman seriously thought about changing his occupation. Nevertheless, The Sandman series continues to come out, while Gaiman also managed to work for television. In 1992, the writer moved to the United States and lives there until today (2011). In 1996, his first independent novel, The Doorway (Nowhere), was published, based on the script for the TV series of the same name. The book received very favorable reviews and was nominated for the British Fantasy Award, Bram Stoker Award and Mythopoeic Award. In 1997, Gaiman wrote his first children's book, The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, followed by Stardust, a 1999 Mythopoeic Award-winning teen book.

In 2001, Neil Gaiman's most famous novel, American Gods, appeared in print. The novel has earned recognition from readers and critics and won several prestigious awards, including the Hugo and Nebula awards. Continuing to collaborate with the television and film industry, Gaiman worked on scripts for his own adaptations. Since 2001, he has released several more novels that have become quite popular, although they have not repeated the success of American Gods. He is currently married to singer and actress Amanda Palmer (the wedding took place on January 2, 2011) and has three children from his first marriage. Neil Gaiman lives near Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Neil Gaiman says that when he sent the outline of his book to Terry Pratchett, he called him and offered to buy the idea or write the book together. According to Gaiman, he naturally agreed to co-authorship, since it was tantamount to Raphael suggesting that an unknown artist paint a picture together.

Neil Gaiman in his work does not distinguish between "graphic novel" and "ordinary", often listing illustrators of his books as co-authors.

But no matter how hard Gaiman tries to write a children's novel, his craving for horror is too great. There are sex scenes in Stardust, and the collection of "children's" stories "Smoke and Mirrors" came out so dark that it was even nominated for a Bram Stoker Award.

Writer's Awards

In addition, Neil Gaiman is the recipient of numerous specialized comics industry awards.

Bibliography

Novels
Good Omens (1990) et al. with Terry Pratchett.
() (1996)
(1998)

English science fiction writer Neil Gaiman Born November 10, 1960 in Portsmouth (UK). His father was a businessman, his mother worked as a pharmacist. After leaving school in 1977, Gaiman turned down the opportunity to graduate in favor of journalism. However, it took six years before his first professional publication, an interview with Robert Silverberg, appeared in the English edition of Penthouse magazine in 1984. In May of the same year, the author's first story, Featherquest, was published in Imagine.

In 1985, Gaiman decided to get into comics, a business that by then, to put it mildly, was in a rather deplorable state. He bought a couple of books on the principles of comics and met Alan Moore, who gave him some practical advice. Neal's first foray into this field was issue #488 of the 2000AD comic anthology, released in 1986. For several years, Gaiman improved his skills, along the way releasing the graphic novel "Violent Cases" (together with artist Dave McKean) and the non-fiction book "Don "t Panic: The Official Hitch-hiker" s Guide To The Galaxy Companion "- an excellent study on creativity English science fiction writer Douglas Adams. Merrily Hayfetz, Gaiman's literary agent (she also worked with such eminent authors as Bruce Sterling and Laurel Hamilton), recalled that Gaiman managed to get an impressive fee for Don "t Panic - more than anyone could have imagined, and then he told her that now he writes comics, but someday he will write novels.

After three years of practicing on other people's projects, Neil Gaiman decides to try his hand at creating an original comic book series. To do this, he takes the order of the forgotten horror hero of the 30s, and in 1989 the first issue of the Sandman comic book appears. It was published by DC (Detective Comics), founded in 1937 and created such super-popular heroes as Superman and Batman. Gaiman did not particularly hope for the success of his offspring, but this was just the case when he was mistaken. "Sandman" began to enjoy incredible popularity, dispersing thousands (and later millions) of copies. In 1991, the nineteenth issue of Sandman even won a World Fantasy Award, the first time in history that a comic book had received a prestigious literary award. It should be noted that during its existence, "Sandman" received a lot of prizes and awards, the names of which will say something only to connoisseurs of the comics industry, which are not enough in our country. But everyone knows the Warner Brothers company, which literally scratched out the right to shoot a high-budget blockbuster based on the series from its competitors. Gaiman himself, however, is skeptical about the possibility of a good film adaptation, saying that he has not yet seen a single good version of the script, and emphasizing that more than 2,000 pages about the adventures of his hero cannot fit in not only a 100-minute film, but even a film trilogy, comparable in scale to The Lord of the Rings.

In 1990, Neil Gaiman, together with Terry Pratchett, released Good Omens, a humorous story about the coming ... End of the World. The book spent 17 weeks on the Sundy Times bestseller list. It was around this time that the super-successful comic book creator began to have thoughts of changing careers.

“There was a period - eight or nine years - when I worked very hard as a comic book writer. And I did it very well. On the other hand,” says Neil Gaiman, “when I wrote Sandman, there were a lot of other things that I wanted to do, but I didn’t have time for it.”

For a few more years, Gaiman diligently carved out time between the next releases of money-making comics (among them were the three parts of "Death: The High Cost of Living" - the first of which sold three hundred thousand copies and was bought by Warner Brothers for film adaptation, as well as the releases of " Batman", "Spawn", etc.) to do other things that are more interesting to him: he wrote several more graphic novels, worked for television on the series "Neverwhere", wrote the script for one of the episodes of the series "Babylon - 5" and the English version translation of the cult Japanese cartoon "Princess Mononoke", for which he was nominated for a Nebula Award.

Working for television inspired Gaiman to write a new book - the novel The Doorway (1996), based on the motives of the television series of the same name. Set in dark and dank London dungeons, this gothic horror film received highly favorable reviews and was nominated for a British Fantasy Award, a Bram Stoker Award and a Mythopoeic Award.

“I began to appreciate my nightmares while writing Sandman,” said Neil Gaiman. - And I think anyone who writes something that contains a little bit of horror, or at least a little bit of weirdness or corruption ... At some point you wake up and think: “Oh, that was terrible ! It was terrible!! All these things and the way they... When I looked in the mirror and the worms started coming out of my chest and... Yeah, it's just great! I will definitely use it!”

In 1997, Gaiman wrote his first children's book, The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, a graphic novel, followed by Stardust, a 1999 Mythopoeic Award-winning fairy tale for teenagers. . Initially, it was published in four parts with illustrations (therefore, the artist Charles Vess is listed as a co-author), and then it was released in one volume, already without pictures.

“And when I finished it,” Gaiman recalls, “I sent the manuscript to my editor at Avon and said to her: “Here is something that I think you will be pleased to read” ... And then there was a phone call from her: “ I liked it! I really want to publish it and I can send it to the publisher, but there is one problem: he hates fantasy.” So the phone rang the next morning and it was the publisher who said, “First of all, I hate fantasy. Secondly, I liked Sturdust. We'll publish it and open Spike Books for her." And I said, “Okay. What is Spike Books? And he said, Spike Books is our pop culture book series! I said, "Okay. But why is fairy tale fantasy about Victorian England relevant to pop culture?!” And he said, "Because you wrote it."

But no matter how hard Gaiman tried to write a children's novel, it was clear that his craving for horror was too great. There are sex scenes in Stardust, and the collection of "children's" stories "Smoke and Mirrors" came out so dark that it was even nominated for a Bram Stoker Award.

In 1992, the writer moved to a new place of residence, leaving England for the United States. This was partly due to the fact that Gaiman's wife is an American, partly to the example of Douglas Adams, who also moved from England to Santa Barbara, and partly to Neil's dream of ... a home.

“I told my wife that I would like to live in the house from the Addams Family movie,” he explained. You won't find anything like this in England! You can find a real Tudor house, built by real Tudors in Tudor times, but what you'll never get is a proper, honest house from The Addams Family. I wanted Victorian Gothic. Something that really gives you goosebumps. I wanted a tower. So I started looking, and I immediately found it. Here is another beautiful feature of America. They just throw things away! And they look so cool! This is real American Gothic! Chilling soul! Every year for Halloween, we put different Halloween candy on the table and put a stack of comics on the doorstep. And every time we throw out both sweets and comics, because the children are simply afraid to approach our house. In all these years, not a single one has come up!”

Shortly after the move, Gaiman released another of his most famous novels, American Gods. Being a freshly baked emigrant, the writer captured his feelings surprisingly accurately and described them in a fantasy story of confrontation between the gods of the Old World who emigrated to America and the new, recently emerging forces - the gods of television, the Internet, the telephone ... But most importantly, Gaiman did not write another fantasy an epic about the battle of divine forces, he managed to describe everything that happens from the point of view of an American man named Shadow (Shadow), who spent time in prison, lost his relatives and became a companion of a gentleman whose name is Wednesday (he turns out to be the Scandinavian god Odin). Shadow and Odin's America's Journey Gaiman shaped like a classic road novel and won the Bram Stoker and Hugo awards, as well as a host of prestigious nominations.

In 2002, another landmark work of the writer was released - the story "Coraline", which critics described as "Alice in Wonderland", written by Stephen King.

And in 2005, a new novel by Neil Gaiman, The Sons of Anansi, was released, referring to the world of American Gods.

In 1984, he completed his first work, a biography of Duran Duran. At the same time, he worked as a journalist and prepared interviews for various British magazines.

In the late 1980s, his book Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion, about author Douglas Adams and his book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was published.

In 1988, the novel "Good Omens" (English "Good Omens") was published, which Gaiman co-wrote with the famous English writer Terry Pratchett.

In 1997, Gaiman wrote the fairy tale novel Stardust, which won the Mythopoeic Award in 1999. In 2007, the film adaptation of the novel was released - the film directed by Matthew Vaughn "Stardust".

Gaiman has written numerous comics for several publishers. His award-winning series The Sandman follows Morpheus (Morpheus), the anthropomorphic personification of the Dream. The series began in 1987 and ended in 1996: 75 issues of the regular series, specials and a prologue have been collected into 11 volumes and are still in print. In 1996, Gaiman and Ed Kramer wrote The Sandman: Book of Dreams. The work was nominated for a British Fantasy Award and was accompanied by stories and articles from Tori Amos, Clive Barker, Thad Williams and others. Now Neil Gaiman lives in America with his wife and children.