Terry Goodkind biography

Terry Goodkind Biography

Terry Goodkind was born in 1948 and raised in Omaha, Nebraska.  His dyslexia caused him constant frustration in high school and he later dropped out of college

His first novel, Wizard’s First Rule (Tor Books, 1994) was sold at auction for six times more than any other first fantasy novel.  With a substantial first print run of 60,000 copies it went on to be a bestseller. Each subsequent book in the Sword of Truth series has sold better than the one before and some twenty million copies of books in the series have now been sold.

The saga of the Sword of Truth started growing in Goodkind’s mind during the early 1990s while he was building his house in the forests of the northeastern U.S. Before turning his hand to writing he was known for his realistic marine and wildlife paintings.

"It started with the character of Kahlan, and grew from that seed," he recalls. "It really became a haunting experience. As soon as I started writing Wizard’s First Rule, I knew writing was my calling. I'd found something to which I truly want to dedicate my life."

Goodkind also attended art school in Omaha, Nebraska, where he pursued one of his many interests on the way to becoming a writer. Besides a career in wildlife art, he has been a cabinet maker and violin maker, and he has done restoration work on rare and exotic artifacts from around the world — each with its own story to tell, he says.

While continuing to maintain the northeastern home he built with his own hands, in recent years he and his wife, Jeri, have created a second home in the desert Southwest, where he now spends the majority of his time.


Sword of Truth series order

1. Wizard's First Rule (1994)
2. Stone of Tears (1995)
3. Blood of the Fold (1996)
4. Temple of the Winds (1997)
5. Soul of the Fire (1999)
6. Faith of the Fallen (2000)
7. The Pillars of Creation (2001)
8. Naked Empire (2003)
9. Chainfire (2005)
10. Phantom (2006)
11. Confessor (2007)
12. The Omen Machine (2011)
13. The Third Kingdom (2013)
14. Severed Souls (2014)
15. Warheart (2015)

Terry Goodkind's website

This bio was last updated on 06/27/2017. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.