John Twelve Hawks
John Twelve Hawks (also known as J12H or JXIIH to his fans) is the author of the 2005 dystopian novel The Traveler and its sequels, The Dark River and The Golden City, collectively comprising the Fourth Realm Trilogy. "John Twelve Hawks" is a pseudonym and his real identity is unknown.[1]
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Sources
Both John Twelve Hawks and his American publisher state that he has never met his editor and that he communicates using the Internet and an untraceable satellite phone, usually employing a voice scrambler. Biographical information about his background is based on five sources:
- a 2005 article in USA Today
- a 2005 interview by Rob Bedford in SFF World
- a 2006 interview published in Germany in Der Spiegel
- a portion of a 2007 Daily Telegraph article about popular writers
- a 2008 Q&A interview on the Weblog of Joseph Mallozzi, a writer and producer of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate:Atlantis.
[edit] Origin of his name
During an online conversation John Twelve Hawks had with his fans on his new website he explained the origin of his name:[2]
The real story is this …
I was walking through a forest …
Encountered a hawk nesting area …
And 12 hawks circled around my head for about ten minutes ….
So close that the tip of their wings brushed the side of my head. That was why I picked the name. REAL hawks. Not symbolic ones.
[edit] Information
Twelve Hawks' initial biography on the Random House website was only one line: "John Twelve Hawks lives off the grid." At some point in 2007, that line disappeared and was replaced with "John Twelve Hawks is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Traveler."
John Twelve Hawks is his "adopted" name, but in the Spiegel interview he states he is not an American Indian. In the Spiegel interview he talks about visiting East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the USA Today article, his response to a question about religion began with, "When I was in my twenties..." and when an editor asked him whether the "realm of hell" could be compared to current conditions in Iraq, Hawks replied "it's more like Beirut in the '70s". In the Spiegel interview and in the Daily Telegraph article, Hawks states that he drives a 15-year-old car and that he does not own a television.[3] These personal facts and a description of JTH's unique lifestyle were confirmed in the 2008 Joseph Mallozzi Weblog interview.[4]
The SFF World interview indicates that Twelve Hawks lived in a commune and learned about literature by stealing books from a restricted university library and then returning the books the next day. In the same interview, he states he wrote The Traveler after passing through some sort of personal crisis. In the interview in SFF World Twelve Hawks claims that he has "no plans to go public" regarding his identity.[5]
In the audiobook version of The Traveler, there is an interview with John Twelve Hawks in which he mentions that he has been practicing martial arts for years.
According to Twelve Hawks' agent, Joe Regal, "He lives in New York, Los Angeles and London", and The Traveler sets its story in all three of these locations.[6]
[edit] Bibliography
Twelve Hawks' sole published work is the Fourth Realm Trilogy:
- The Traveler (2005)
- The Dark River (2007)
- The Golden City (2009)
[edit] References
- ^ "Those remaining literary recluses in full". The Guardian (London). 1 February 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/01/jdsalinger-jmcoetzee.
- ^ John Twelve Hawks (2009-05-24). "Live chat with John Twelve Hawks". wespeakforfreedom.com. http://wespeakforfreedom.com/articles/john-twelve-hawks/john-twelve-hawks-chat-log-24th-may-2009. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
- ^ David Thomas (2007-04-01). "Like Dan Brown, but better". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/04/01/svthrill01.xml&page=3. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
- ^ Joseph Mallozzi (2008-10-30). "Interview With John Twelve Hawks". josephmallozzi.wordpress.com. http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/october-30-2008-author-john-twelve-hawks-answers-your-questions/. Retrieved 2008-10-30.
- ^ Rob Bedford (2005-12-04). "Interview With John Twelve Hawks". SFFWORLD.COM. http://www.sffworld.com/mul/146p0.html. Retrieved 2006-08-12.
- ^ Carol Memmot (2005-06-27). "Cryptic 'Traveler' has book world buzzing". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2005-06-27-traveler_x.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-12.
