Jean M. Auel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Born: | February 18, 1936 Chicago, Illinois (USA)  |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Novelist |
| Nationality: | United States of America |
| Writing period: | 1980 - Present |
| Genres: | Pre-historical fiction |
| Debut works: | The Clan of the Cave Bear |
| Website: | jeanmauel.co.uk |
Jean Marie Untinen Auel (born February 18, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American writer, better known as Jean M. Auel. She is best known for her Earth's Children books, a series of historical fiction novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals. Her books have sold 34 million copies world-wide in many translations.
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[edit] Biography
Author Jean Auel (surname rhymes with "owl")[1] was born in Chicago, Illinois, February 18, 1936, the second of five children of Neil Solomon Untinen, a housepainter, and Martha Wirtanen. She and her husband, Ray Bernard Auel, have five children and live in Portland, Oregon.
Auel attended Portland State University and the University of Portland. She earned an MBA in 1976 and has received honorary degrees from the University of Maine and Mount Vernon College for Women. She has worked as a clerk (1965-1966), a circuit board designer (1966-1973), technical writer (1973-1974), and a credit manager at Tektronix (1974-1976). Auel is a member of Mensa.[2] At one time, she shared a secretary with author Ursula K. Le Guin.[citation needed]
In 1977, Auel began extensive library research of the Ice Age for her first book. She joined a survival class to learn how to construct an ice cave, and learned primitive methods of making fire, tanning leather, and knapping stone from aboriginal skills expert Jim Riggs. Auel describes Riggs as "the kind of person you could put into one end of a wilderness naked, and he'd come out the other end fed, clothed, and sheltered."
After the success of the first book, Auel was able to travel to prehistoric sites and to meet many of the experts with whom she had been corresponding. Her research has taken her across Europe from France to Ukraine, including most of what Marija Gimbutas called Old Europe. She has developed a close friendship with Dr. Jean Clottes of France who was responsible for, among many other things, the exploration of the Cosquer Cave discovered in 1985 and the Chauvet Cave discovered in 1994.
Jean Auel's books have been commended for their anthropological authenticity and their ethnobotanical accuracy. Though recent archaeological research may suggest that some prehistorical details in the series are inaccurate, and others fictional, specification of prehistorical milestones is sometimes arbitrary and inconsistent. The differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens sapiens may have been exaggerated or underestimated in the series. It has been found that Neanderthals had a Hyoid bone and may thus have been capable of using vocal language and not as dependent on sign language as portrayed in the series. However, the existence of a Neanderthal hyoid bone was confirmed in 1983, some years after the first book in the series was published. On the other hand, many paleontologists would estimate that she places the intellectual and technological performances of Neanderthals on a too exalted level[citation needed].
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Earth's children Series
- The Clan of the Cave Bear, 1980
- The Valley of Horses, 1982
- The Mammoth Hunters, 1985
- The Plains of Passage, 1990
- The Shelters of Stone, 2002
- In preparation
[edit] References
- ^ Literature Resource Center. Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT. 14 March 2007 <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?locID=vol_m58c> (2004). "Jean M(arie) Auel," in Contemporary Authors. (A profile of the author's life and works), Detroit, MI : Gale. http://biblio.middlebury.edu/record=b1629219
- ^ (July 2004) "They're Accomplished, They're Famous, and They're MENSANS". Mensa Bulletin (476): p. 27. ISSN 0025-9543.
