| Jean Marie Auel | |
|---|---|
Jean Auel at the Miami Book Fair of 1990 |
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| Born | Jean Marie Untinen February 18, 1936 Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Pen name | Jean M. Auel Jean M. Untinen-Auel (Finland) |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Portland (MBA '76)[1] |
| Period | 1980-present |
| Genres | Pre-historical fiction |
| Notable work(s) | Earth's Children series |
| Spouse(s) | Ray Bernard Auel |
| Children | 5 |
Jean Marie Auel ( /ˈdʒiːn məˈriː ˈaʊl/; born February 18, 1936) is an American writer. She is best known for her Earth's Children books, a series of novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals. As of 2010 her books have sold over 45 million copies worldwide.[2]
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Born Jean Marie Untinen on February 18, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois,[3] she is of Finnish descent, the second of five children of Neil Solomon Untinen, a housepainter, and Martha Wirtanen.
Auel attended Portland State University. While a student, she joined Mensa,[4] and worked at Tektronix, as a clerk (1965–66), a circuit board designer (1966–73), technical writer (1973–74), and a credit manager (1974–76). At one time, she shared a secretary with the author Ursula K. Le Guin. Auel earned an Master of Business Administration from the University of Portland in 1976,[1] and she has been awarded honorary degrees from her alma mater, the University of Maine, and the Mount Vernon College for Women.
In 1977, Auel began extensive library research of the Ice Age for her first book. She joined a survival class to learn how to construct an ice cave, and learned primitive methods of making fire, tanning leather, and knapping stone from the aboriginal skills expert Jim Riggs.[5]
The Clan of the Cave Bear was nominated for numerous literary awards, including an American Booksellers Association nomination for best first novel.[6] It was also later adapted into a screenplay for the film of the same name.
After the sales success of her first book, Auel has been able to travel to the sites of prehistoric ruins and relics, and also to meet many of the experts with whom she had been corresponding. Her research has taken her across Europe from France to Ukraine, including most of what Marija Gimbutas called Old Europe. In 1986 she attended and co-sponsored a conference on modern human origins at the School of American Research, Santa Fe.[7] She has developed a close friendship with Dr. Jean Clottes of France who was responsible for, among many other things, the exploration of the Cosquer Cave discovered in 1985 and the Chauvet Cave discovered in 1994.[8][9]
In October 2008, Auel was named an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and Communication.[10]
By 1990, Auel's first three books in her Earth's Children series sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and had been translated into 18 languages; Crown Publishers has reportedly paid Auel about $25 million for the rights to publish The Plains of Passage and the two subsequent volumes.[11] By May 2002, on the cusp of the publication of the fifth book, the series had sold 34 million books.[12] The sixth and final book in the series, The Land of Painted Caves, was published in 2011.[13]
Auel married Ray Bernard Auel after high school.[3] They are the parents of five children, and live in Portland, Oregon.