On the 10th of November 1960, in Portchester, England, the famous English author Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman was born. He is mostly regarded as a novelist but with an enormous impact on English comic books, short fiction, films, and graphic novels. As of young age, Neil showed great interest in the works of great and renowned authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Mary Shelley, C. S. Lewis, Edgar Allan Poe… But as he admitted himself, the one person who had the most influence on him and his work was an American writer and poet, Roger Zelazny.
Growing up in a small village was an excellent thing for a young but very bright mind of Neil Gaiman. Since the age of 4, when he started reading, he never stopped, and for his seventh birthday, as a present, Neil got C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia series. It was maybe a turning point of Neil Gaiman’s life, as the influence of this book guided him to become one of the most recognized, successful, and appreciated novelists today. Knowing this, it is no wonder that his second favorite childhood book was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
Gaiman’s family is of Jewish origin with a father who was in a public relations of the Church of Scientology, and a mother who was a pharmacist. He also has two sisters, Claire and Izzy.
Neil got married twice and has four children. Three of Neil’s four children are from his first marriage with Mary McGrath, and he got a son in 2015 with Amanda, his second wife, whom he married back in 2007, but in May this year, the couple announced their separation.
During his childhood, Neil adored comic books, but as he got older, one thing he realized is that there weren’t that many of them for an older audience, so he began writing them. His collaboration with the artist Dave McKean on many graphic nowels was so fruitful that one of the graphics Neil wrote (Black Orchid) got him the job to rewrite The Sandman but in his unique way. From this point, everything changed, as The Sandman graphic novel left critics overwhelmed. Not even Gaiman expected this comic book series to be so successful, gathering the attention of new readers, especially young college women all over the world.
Since then, Neil wrote more than 44 books, and he collaborated with a host of other famous writers like Gene Wolfe, Kim Newman, and Terry Pratchett. Some of his well-known titles are Coraline, a dark fantasy novel for children, the trilogy – InterWorld, Stardust, etc. Almost every book Neil Gaiman wrote is popular and acknowledged, and for those who need and want more info on them, you can check here, and find the one that suits you the most, but with one advice – once you start reading, there is no way to stop, as you will surely want more.
All this success got him plenty of awards and recognitions, and it opened the doors for him in the television and film industry. Gaiman performed as a voice actor in the animated adventure-comedy tv-series Arthur, and have an appearance in The Simpsons. He also had great success while writing for various television shows, and especially for the well-known one, Doctor Who.
Many of his original novels came to life as a movie, with 2007 Stardust being the most notable one, due to the impact it had on both critics and the audience, and the overall success, earning more than 137 million dollars worldwide.
His notable work is also on the movie adaptation of Beowulf in 2007, on which he worked along with Roger Avery.
In 2017 the tv series adaptation of his novel American Gods stunned critics who couldn’t stop complimenting and praising the show.
As an accomplished screenplay writer, Neil also wrote the script for many shows and movies, such as television series Lucifer, back in 2019. The same year, along with Terry Pratchett, Gaiman created and adapted his novel Good Omens into a tv mini-series. For his exceptional work on this screenplay, the author got the Hugo Award (for the best dramatic presentation. Neil’s outstanding work on audio theatre plays such as Snow, Glass, Apples, and Murder Mysteries were not overseen, and they were performed by Seeing Ear Theatre.
What makes this author so appreciated among fans is that he often likes to do a public performance for his poetry and stories, often accompanied by his second wife, Amanda Palmer, an accomplished musician and songwriter.
Since 1990 and his first novel Good Omens, the net worth of this author is continually rising. As of February 2024, the estimated net worth of Neil Gaiman is set at 20 million dollars. He earned most of his money by writing, and since 2012 he lives in the USA in the city of Wisconsin. In 2014 Neil got a signed as a professor of arts at Bard College in New York.
Many literary honors like the Nebula, Hugo, Bram Stoker award, and numerous others, say a lot about this author and how much great of an impact he had and still has, especially in the graphic novel world, bring that type of literature to another level. Neil is also the first one who got both the Newbery and Carnegie medals for the same novel, The Graveyard Book, and his fantasy The Ocean at the End of the Lane got voted as the best novel of the year in the British National Book Award in 2013.
For more than 30 years, we enjoy various publications of this author, in which he always finds a new way to spice things up and brings some new plot twists in his work, leaving us wondering what will happen next. You would not be wrong if you say that Neil Gaiman has done it all, and as he continues writing for a variety of mediums, we can only wait to see what he comes up with next, and how will he make us read something new in one breath.
