Neal Stephenson

From Litspot Wiki

Biography

Neal Town Stephenson was ironically born on Halloween(October 31st) of 1959 in Fort Meade, Maryland. Fort Meade, Maryland is also home to the NSA and the National Cryptologic Museum which may have influenced him later in life if he studied his hometown. His family was also a probable source of influence as many members are scientists of one school or another. His father was a professor of electrical engineering, and his father's father was a professor of physics. His mother's side of the family contributed another facet of influence as his mother worked in a biochemistry laboratory, and his mother's father was a biochemistry professor. Shortly after he was born, his family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1960. His family made another move early in his life in 1966 when they relocated to Ames, Iowa. Neal had time to get accustomed to this town, and eventually graduated from Ames High School in 1977. He then continued his education at Boston University where he specialized in physics until he realized switching to geography would give him more access to the campus mainframe. He graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in geography with a minor in physics.

Continuing to write, Stephenson has also found work as an advisor for Blue Origin LLC. Blue Origin LLC is a space technology related company that is funded by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Although he spent most of his formative years on the east coast, he now resides in Seattle, Washington with his wife and two children.

Literary Career

Neal Stephenson began his literary career with his first publication, The Big U in 1984. Although this book did not gain him much fame and was taken out of print, his later works would spark enough interest for Stephenson to allow a reprinting in 2001. After his work on The Big U, he moved on to compose his second title, Zodiac. This work began his vault into literary fame, especially in the cyberpunk genre. With new-found motivation, he then went on to write, arguably, his best work, Snow Crash in 1992. Following his writing style of incorporating technology, philosophy, and humanity into one piece of literature, Stephenson publishes The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer in 1995. This work earned him both the Hugo and Nebula Award for Best Novel. Stephenson was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel by publishing his 1999 book, Cryptonomicon. In the early 2000's, Stephenson began work to publish his series, The Baroque Cycle beginning with Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds, and Odalisque in 2003. Seemingly inspired, Stephenson completed his series in 2004 with the publishing of Bonanza, Juncto, Solomon's Gold, Currency, and The System of the World. Even with his awards and long list of publications, Neal Stephenson is still working on new material and has an alleged space opera slated for publication in September of 2008.