Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American poet and writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times and the Hugo Award six times, including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel... And Call Me Conrad, subsequently published under the title This Immortal and the novel Lord of Light. Roger Joseph Zelazny was born in Euclid, the only child of Polish immigrant Joseph Frank Żelazny and Irish-American Josephine Flora Sweet. In high school, he joined the Creative Writing Club. In the fall of 1955, he began attending Western Reserve University and graduated with a B. A. in English in 1959. He was accepted to Columbia University in New York and specialized in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, graduating with an M. A. in 1962. His M. A. thesis was entitled Two traditions and Cyril Tourneur: an examination of morality and humor comedy conventions in The Revenger's Tragedy. Between 1962 and 1969 he worked for the U. S. Social Security Administration in Cleveland, Ohio and in Baltimore, Maryland spending his evenings writing science fiction.

He deliberately progressed from short-shorts to novelettes to novellas and to novel-length works by 1965. On May 1, 1969, he quit to become a full-time writer, thereafter concentrated on writing novels in order to maintain his income. During this period, he was an active and vocal member of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, whose members included writers Jack Chalker and Joe and Jack Haldeman among others, his first fanzine appearance was part one of the story "Conditional Benefit" and his first professional publication and sale was the fantasy short story "Mr. Fuller's Revolt"; as a professional writer, his debut works were the simultaneous publication of "Passion Play" and "Horseman!". "Passion Play" was sold first. His first story to attract major attention was "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, with cover art by Hannes Bok. Roger Zelazny was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies.

Zelazny died in 1995, aged 58, of kidney failure secondary to colorectal cancer. Zelazny was married twice, first to Sharon Steberl in 1964, to Judith Alene Callahan in 1966. Prior to this he was engaged to folk singer Hedy West for six months from 1961 to 1962. Roger and Judith had two sons and Trent and a daughter, Shannon. At the time of his death and Judith were separated and he was living with author Jane Lindskold. Raised as a Catholic by his parents, Zelazny declared himself a lapsed Catholic and remained that way for the rest of his life. "I did have a strong Catholic background. Somewhere in the past, I believe I answered in the affirmative once for strange and complicated reasons, but I am not a member of any organized religion." In his stories, Roger Zelazny portrayed characters from myth, depicted in the modern or a future world. Zelazny included many anachronisms, such as cigarette-smoking and references to modern drama, in his work, his crisp, minimalistic dialogue seems to be somewhat influenced by the style of wisecracking hardboiled crime authors, such as Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett.

The tension between the ancient and the modern and familiar was what drove most of his work. A frequent motif in Zelazny's work is immortality or people who become gods; the mythological traditions his fiction borrowed from include: Chinese mythology in "Lord Demon" Christian mythology, in the short story A Rose for Ecclesiastes Egyptian mythology in Creatures of Light and Darkness Greek mythology, in... And Call Me Conrad Hindu mythology, in Lord of Light Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in A Night in the Lonesome October Navajo mythology, in Eye of Cat Norse mythology, in The Mask of Loki Psychoanalysis, Arthurian mythos, Norse mythology and Kabbalah in The Dream MasterAdditionally, elements from Norse and Irish mythology, Arthurian legend as well as several references to real history appear in his magnum opus, The Chronicles of Amber. Aside from working with mythological themes, the most common recurring motif of Zelazny's is the "absent father". Again, this occurs most notably in the Amber novels: in the first Amber series, the protagonist Corwin searches for his lost, god-like father Oberon.

This somewhat Freudian theme runs through every Zelazny novel to a smaller or larger degree. Roadmarks, Doorways in the Sand, Madwand, A Dark Traveling. Zelazny's father, died unexpectedly in 1962 and never knew his son's successes as a writer. Two other personal characteristics that influenced his fiction were his expertise in martial arts and his addiction to tobacco. Zelazny became expert with the épée in college, thus began a lifelong study of several different martial arts, includi

Supreme Records was a small, independent record label based in Los Angeles that existed from 1947 to 1950. It was founded by specialized in rhythm and blues, its artists included Jimmy Witherspoon, Paula Watson, Buddy Tate, Eddie Williams and his Brown Buddies, Big Jim Wynn, Percy Mayfield. Supreme's two greatest hits were Paula Watson's "A Little Bird Told Me," which sold over a million copies, Jimmy Witherspoon's version of "Ain't Nobody's Business," recorded on Albert Patrick's request, which lasted 34 weeks on Billboard's Rhythm & Blues hit list. Supreme got involved in a costly lawsuit against Decca for copyright infringement on the arrangement of Paula Watson's version of "A Little Bird Told Me," with their version of Evelyn Knight; the judge ruled in favor of Decca, stating that arrangements on an existing composition cannot be considered as property. He stated that the arrangement on Watson's version lacked originality and the differences between the versions were evident. In another lawsuit, the label lost its pressing and distribution partner Black & White Records after settling a dispute over Black & White selling its pressing line to Monogram in Canada.

Due to the financial duress from the lawsuits, Supreme shut down in 1950. Most of the masters were sold to Swing Time Records. "Two Years of Torture", recorded by Percy Mayfield was re-released by John Dolphin's label, Dolphin's of Hollywood. Supreme Records at The Online Discographical Project

Pieter is a male given name, the Dutch form of Peter, The name has been one of the most common names in the Netherlands for centuries, but since the mid-twentieth century its popularity has dropped from 3000 per year in 1947 to about 100 a year in 2016. Some of the better known people with this name are below. See All pages with titles beginning with Pieter for a longer list. Pieter de Coninck, Flemish revolutionary Pieter van der Moere, Flemish Franciscan missionary in Mexico known as "Pedro de Gante" Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Flemish artist and author Pieter Aertsen, Dutch Mannerist painter Pieter Pourbus, Netherlandish painter, sculptor and cartographer Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Netherlandish painter Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser, Dutch navigator who mapped the southern sky Pieter Platevoet, Dutch-Flemish astronomer and cartographer better known as "Petrus Plancius" Pieter Pauw, Dutch botanist Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Netherlandish painter Pieter Both, first Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian and playwright Pieter Lastman, Dutch painter of historical and biblical scenes Pieter de Carpentier, Dutch Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies 1623–27 Pieter Nuyts, Dutch explorer and politician Pieter Claesz, Dutch still life painter Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Dutch painter of interiors Pieter van Laer, Dutch painter and printmaker Pieter de Grebber, Dutch Golden Age painter Pieter Post, Dutch architect Pieter Stuyvesant, Dutch Director-General of New Netherland 1647–64 Pieter van der Faes, Dutch portrait painter in England known as "Peter Lely" Pieter Boel, Flemish still life and animal painter Pieter de Hooch, Dutch genre painter Pieter van der Aa, Dutch publisher of maps and atlases Pieter Burmann the Elder, Dutch classical scholar Pieter van Musschenbroek, Dutch scientist and inventor Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, Dutch merchant and banker Pieter Burmann the Younger, Dutch philologist Pieter Hellendaal, Dutch composer and violinist Pieter van Maldere, South-Netherlandish violinist and composer Pieter Boddaert, Dutch physician and naturalist Pieter Gerardus van Overstraten, Governor-general of the Dutch East Indies 1796–1801 Pieter Maurits Retief, South African Voortrekker leader Pieter Harting, Dutch biologist and naturalist Pieter de Decker, Prime Minister of Belgium 1855–57 Pieter Bleeker, Dutch medical doctor and herpetologist Pieter Cort van der Linden, Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1913–18 Pieter Jelles Troelstra, Dutch socialist politician and republican Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, Dutch abstract painter Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, Prime Minister of the Netherlands in exile, 1940–45 Pieter Geyl, Dutch historian Pieter Willem Botha, President of South Africa 1978–89 Pieter Kooijmans, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Pieter van Vollenhoven, the husband of princess Margriet of The Netherlands Pieter Aspe, Belgian crime fiction writer Pieter Hoekstra, Dutch-American politician and diplomat Pieter De Crem, Belgian Minister of Defence 2007–14 Pieter Wispelwey, Dutch cellist Pieter Huistra, Dutch footballer and football coach Pieter van den Hoogenband, Dutch freestyle swimmer Pieter Weening, Dutch road bicycle racer Pieter Timmers, Belgian freestyle swimmer Sint Pieter, a village now incorporated in Maastricht Sint-Pieters, a suburb of Bruges Pieterburen, a village in the north of Groningen