R.A. Salvatore was born in Massachusetts in 1959. He is the New York Times–bestselling author of more than forty novels, including the popular Forgotten Realms series, The Legend of Drizzt. His love affair with fantasy, and with literature in general, began during his sophomore year of college when he was given a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings as a Christmas gift. He promptly changed his major from computer science to journalism. He began writing seriously in 1982, penning the manuscript that would become Echoes of the Fourth Magic.