Jakes was born in Chicago, Illinois. He first sold stories to pulp magazines while still in college in the early 1950s. He studied creative writing at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, graduating in 1953. He then earned an M.A. in American literature from The Ohio State University. Jakes published dozens of stories and several novels during the twenty years following completion of college, many of them fantasy fiction, science fiction and westerns and other sorts of historical fiction, while working in the advertising industry. In 1971, he began to write full-time. Jakes gained widespread popularity with the publication of his Kent Family Chronicles, which became a bestselling American Bicentennial Series of books in the mid to late 1970s,[2] selling 55 million copies. He has since published several more popular works of historical fiction, most dealing with American history, including the North and South trilogy about the U.S. Civil War, which sold 10 million copies and was adapted as an ABC-TV miniseries.
My Opinion: Certainly not a mystery writer, I include him because of the great joy I had in reading his Kent Family Chronicles series written in the mid to late 70's. In fact, I liked it so much I have been re-reading it and am up to the final book. A very prolific writer of historical novels, I encourage anyone who enjoys this type of book to try his work.
The Kent Family Chronicles[edit]
Main article: The Kent Family Chronicles
The Bastard (1974) (Film adaptation: The Bastard)
The Rebels (1975) (Film adaptation: The Rebels)
The Seekers (1975) (Film adaptation: The Seekers)
The Furies (1976)
The Titans (1976)
The Warriors (1977)
The Lawless (1978)
The Americans (1979)
The North and South trilogy[edit]
Main article: North and South (trilogy)
North and South (1982)
Love and War (1984)
Heaven and Hell (1987)
The Crown Family Saga[edit]
Homeland (1993)
American Dreams (1998)
Other[edit]
A Night For Treason (1956)
Wear A Fast Gun (1956)
The Devil Has Four Faces (1958)
The Seventh Man (1958)
I, Barbarian (1959) (as Jay Scotland)
Johnny Havoc (1960)
Sir Scoundrel (1962) (as Jay Scotland)
Arena (1963) (as Jay Scotland)
Making It Big aka Johnny Havoc and the Siren in Red (1968)
California Gold (1989)
In The Big Country (1993), later reissued as The Bold Frontier (2001)
On Secret Service (2000)
Charleston (2002)
Savannah or a Gift for Mr. Lincoln (2004)
Funeral for Tanner Moody (with Elmer Kelton, Robert Randish) (2004)
The Gods of Newport (2006)
Brak the Barbarian[edit]
Brak the Barbarian (1968)
The Fortunes of Brak (1980)
Brak the Barbarian / Mark of the Demons (omnibus) (2012)
Witch of the Four Winds / When the Idols Walked (omnibus) (2012)
Dark Gate[edit]
Master of the Dark Gate (1970)
Witch of the Dark Gate (1972)
Dragonard[edit]
When The Star Kings Die (1967)
The Planet Wizard (1969)
Tonight We Steal the Stars (1969)
Planet of the Apes[edit]
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
Other novels[edit]
Secrets Of Stardeep (1969)
The Hybrid (1969)
The Last Magicians (1969)
The Asylum World (1969)
Mask of Chaos (1970)
Monte Cristo #99 (1970)
Six-Gun Planet (1970)
Black in Time (1970)
Time Gate (1972)
Mention My Name in Atlantis (1972)
On Wheels (1973)
Excalibur (1980) with Gil Kane
Collections[edit]
The Best of John Jakes (1977)
Susanna of the Alamo (1986)
Famous Firsts in Sports (1967)
Great War Correspondents (1967))
Great Women Reporters (1969)
Mohawk: The Life Of Joseph Brant (1969)
If you would like to learn more about this author, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jakes