George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, on September 20, 1948. His father, Raymond Martin, was a longshoreman, working in ports to load and unload ships, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. In 1953, the family moved into federal housing projects, where Martin lived for the next 14 years. As a child, Martin wrote stories about monsters that he would sell to classmates and other children from his neighborhood. He attended Northwestern University, where he received a degree in journalism. During the Vietnam War, Martin became a conscientious objector and served as a VISTA volunteer at the Cook County Legal Service Foundation for two years in place of military service. During his 20s, Martin wrote short stories before publishing his first full-length work of fiction, Dying of the Light, in 1977. He went on to publish several subsequent novels, which often delved into horror and science fiction genres. Martin has also worked in TV, including time spent as a writer on a 1985 remake of the Twilight Zone. He is most well-known for his series A Song of Ice and Fire. A Game of Thrones, published in 1996, was the first book in that series. The latest novel in the series, A Dance with Dragons, was published in 2011. A Song of Ice and Fire then became a successful, Emmy-award-winning television series.