Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Box
Title
Manuscripts
Date(s)
- 1981 - 1987 (Creation)
Extent
1 box
Name of creator
Biographical history
Stephen Leigh (who writes as Leigh and under the names S.L. Farrell and Matthew Farrell) was born in Cincinnati, OH, on February 27, 1951. With a B.A. in Fine Arts and an M.A. in Creative Writing, Leigh taught creative writing at Northern Kentucky University from 2001 until his retirement in 2020.
Leigh's literary debut was the short story "And Speak of Soft Defiance", published in Eternity SF in 1975; this was the first of some 40 pieces of short fiction Leigh has written. Some of Leigh's short fiction include his December 1976 story "Answer in Cold Stone" (Leigh's first Analog publication), "When We Come Down" (Asimov's, 1978), "Shaping Memory" (Asimov's, 1985), "Evening Shadow" (Asimov's, 1988), "The Bright Seas of Venus (Galaxy's Edge*, 2013), and "Bones of Air, Bones of Stone" (2015).
In addition, Leigh has written numerous stories as an original member of George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards mosaic universe collective of writers. Leigh is responsible for the creation of several notable Wild Cards characters, including Gregg Hartmann/Puppetman, Bloat, Oddity, Gimli, and Steam Wilbur. To date, Leigh (sometimes writing as S.L. Farrell) has written content for eighteen of the Wild Cards books.
Leigh has also enjoyed a successful career as a science fiction and fantasy novelist. His debut novel was 1981's Slow Fall To Dawn, which was nominated for the 1982 Locus Award for Best First Novel. Slow Fall was the first of Leigh's Neweden/Hoorka trilogy, followed by Dance of the Hag (1983) and A Quiet of Stone (1984). He wrote The Secret of the Lona in 1988, the first in the Dr. Bones series (a fantasy series written by various authors, including Leigh's Wild Cards colleague William Wu). Leigh has written 6 novels in AvoNova's Ray Bradbury Presents series (1992-1995): Dinosaur World, Dinosaur Planet, Dinosaur Samurai, Dinosaur Warriors, Dinosaur Empire, and Dinosaur Conquest. His 1998-1999 Mictlan duology includes the novels Dark Water's Embrace and Speaking Stories,
Leigh has also written several popular fantasy series. most of them under the name S.L. Farrell. These include the Cloudmages series (2003-2005), which include Holder of Lightning, Mage of Clouds, and Heir of Stone; the Nessantico Cycle (2008-2010), which includes the novels A Magic of Twilight, A Magic of Nightfall, and A Magic of Dawn; the paranormal fantasy series Sunpath Cycle (2017-2018), which includes A Fading Sun and A Rising Moon. Leigh's standalone SF&F novels include The Bones of God (1981), The Crystal Memory (1987), The Abraxas Marvel Circus (1990), Thunder Rift (2001, as Matthew Farrell, republished in 2010 as The Shape of Silence), and several others. His most recent published novel is 2021's science fiction work Amid the Crown of Stars.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
1-2/1: "Tapestry" (1982), typescript submission copy (carbon copy), January 1980
1-2/2: "Tapestry" (1982), typescript partial draft (under old title "Job's Companion"), undated
1-2/3: Dance of the Hag (1983), sample chapters and outline with handwritten edits (under working title Lassari), undated
1-2/4: Dance of the Hag (1983), original typescript with handwritten edits, chapters 1 - 4, undated
1-2/5: Dance of the Hag (1983), original typescript with handwritten edits, chapters 5 - 8, undated
1-2/6: Dance of the Hag (1983), original typescript with handwritten edits, chapters 9 - 14, undated
1-2/7: Dance of the Hag (1983), copyedited typescript with handwritten edits, chapters 1 - 6, undated
1-2/8: Dance of the Hag (1983), copyedited typescript with handwritten edits, chapters 7 - 10, undated
1-2/9: Dance of the Hag (1983), copyedited typescript with handwritten edits, chapters 11 - 14, undated
1-2/10: A Quiet of Stone (1984), handwritten draft chapters, undated
1-2/11: A Quiet of Stone (1984), original typescript with handwritten edits, chapters 1 - 7, undated
1-2/12: A Quiet of Stone (1984), original typescript with handwritten edits, chapters 8 - 15, undated
1-2/13: A Quiet of Stone (1984), original typescript with handwritten edits, chapters 16 - 21, undated
1-2/14: A Quiet of Stone (1984), copyedited typescript with handwritten copyedits, chapters 1 - 5, undated
1-2/15: A Quiet of Stone (1984), copyedited typescript with handwritten copyedits, chapters 6 - 14, undated
1-2/16: A Quiet of Stone (1984), copyedited typescript with handwritten copyedits, chapters 15 - 21, undated
1-2/17: "Fertile Soil" (published as "Shaping Memory", 1985), typescript, undated
1-2/18: "Flamestones" (1985), typescript draft and assorted draft pages with handwritten edits, undated
1-2/19: "Flamestones" (1985), typescript draft with handwritten edits, undated
1-2/20: "Flamestones" (1985), typescript submission draft, undated; and related correspondence, 1984
1-2/21: "Shaping Memory" (1985), early draft (under old title "From the Fertile Soil Borne", January 1976
1-2/22: "Shaping Memory" (1985), typescript original draft with handwritten copyedits, and cover letter from Asimov's, 1985?
1-2/23: "Shaping Memory" (1985), typescript draft, undated
1-2/24: The Bones of God (1986), original typescript, title page - chapter 13, undated
1-2/25: The Bones of God (1986), original typescript, chapters 14 - 22, undated
1-2/26: The Bones of God (1986), original typescript, chapters 23 - 30, undated
1-2/27: The Bones of God (1986), typescript outline and notes, undated
1-2/28: "Innocent in Hell's Clothing" (unpublished, 1986?), typescript with handwritten edits, undated
1-2/29: The Crystal Memory (1987), outline, 1983; first page of text, background notes, and floppy disks containing manuscript material, undated
1-2/30: The Crystal Memory (1987), copyedited typescript with handwritten copyedits, chapter 1 - 8, undated
1-2/31: The Crystal Memory (1987), copyedited typescript with handwritten copyedits, chapter 9- 13, undated
1-2/32: The Crystal Memory (1987), copyedited typescript with handwritten copyedits, chapter 14 - 19, undated