Dan Simmons

Born

in Peoria, Illinois, The United States

April 04, 1948

Website

http://www.dansimmons.com/

Genre

Science Fiction, Fantasy

Influences

Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, Jack Vance

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Dan Simmons grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.

Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years—2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York—one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher—and 14 years in Colorado.

ABOUT DAN
Biographic Sketch

His last four years in teaching were Dan Simmons grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.

Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years—2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York—one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher—and 14 years in Colorado.

ABOUT DAN
Biographic Sketch

His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.

Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."

Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado—in the same town where he taught for 14 years—with his wife, Karen, his daughter, Jane, (when she's home from Hamilton College) and their Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Fergie. He does much of his writing at Windwalker—their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike—a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels—was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin. ...more

Combine Editions
Dan Simmons's Books

Average rating: 4.03 · 367,984 ratings · 19,438 reviews · 161 distinct works · Similar authors

	Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1) 4.19 avg rating — 108,858 ratings — published 1989 — 91 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos #2) 4.16 avg rating — 57,410 ratings — published 1990 — 67 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos #4) 4.14 avg rating — 27,820 ratings — published 1997 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Endymion (Hyperion Cantos #3) 4.12 avg rating — 27,867 ratings — published 1995 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Terror 3.99 avg rating — 20,472 ratings — published 2006 — 60 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ilium (Ilium, #1) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 18,853 ratings — published 2003 — 43 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Carrion Comfort 3.88 avg rating — 12,890 ratings — published 1989 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Summer of Night 3.98 avg rating — 12,273 ratings — published 1991 — 41 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Olympos (Ilium, #2) 3.92 avg rating — 11,073 ratings — published 2005 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Drood 3.47 avg rating — 11,065 ratings — published 2009 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Dan Simmons…

Series by Dan Simmons

Hyperion Cantos (4 books)
by Dan Simmons
4.17 avg rating — 227,281 ratings

Ilium (2 books)
by Dan Simmons
3.97 avg rating — 29,935 ratings

Summer of Night (3 books)
by Dan Simmons
3.84 avg rating — 21,238 ratings

Seasons of Horror (3 books)
by Dan Simmons
3.84 avg rating — 21,238 ratings

Joe Kurtz (3 books)
by Dan Simmons
3.77 avg rating — 3,109 ratings

More series by Dan Simmons…

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Interviews

April 2015, Dan Simmons
"His Favorite Fiction About Historical Characters: Fact and fiction blend in these recs from the author of the new mystery The Fifth Heart, starring Henry James and Sherlock Holmes." ...More

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Quotes by Dan Simmons

“To see and feel one's beloved naked for the first time is one of life's pure, irreducible epiphanies. If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include that truth of contact or be forever hollow. To make love to the one true person who deserves that love is one of the few absolute rewards of being a human being, balancing all of the pain, loss, awkwardness, loneliness, idiocy, compromise, and clumsiness that go with the human condition. To make love to the right person makes up for a lot of mistakes.”
― Dan Simmons, The Rise of Endymion

tags: beauty, connection, happiness, inspiration, love, religion, sex

211 likes

“In the beginning was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes.”
― Dan Simmons, Hyperion

tags: history, literature, writing

96 likes

“It occurs to me that our survival may depend upon our talking to one another.”
― Dan Simmons, Hyperion

tags: humor, inspirational, networking

80 likes

See all Dan Simmons's quotes »

Polls

What book would you like to read in April? A book you would recommend to Stephen King

Weaveworld Clive Barker

30 votes, 14.0%

Summer of Night Dan Simmons

26 votes, 12.1%

Night Film Marisha Pessl

18 votes, 8.4%

Sphere by Michael Crichton

18 votes, 8.4%

House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski

13 votes, 6.0%

The Great and Secret Show Clive Barker

13 votes, 6.0%

I, Ripper Stephen Hunter

13 votes, 6.0%

Ring Kōji Suzuki

13 votes, 6.0%

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

12 votes, 5.6%

Bird Box Josh Malerman

11 votes, 5.1%

The Killer Next Door Alex Marwood

9 votes, 4.2%

The Deep Nick Cutter

7 votes, 3.3%

The Cartel Don Winslow

7 votes, 3.3%

The Highway C.J. Box

6 votes, 2.8%

The Widow Fiona Barton

5 votes, 2.3%

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Karen Joy Fowler

5 votes, 2.3%

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

5 votes, 2.3%

Sheep Simon Maginn

4 votes, 1.9%

215 total votes

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Dan Simmons

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Quotes by Dan Simmons

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Combine Editions
Dan Simmons's Books