Editing David Eddings (section)

==Early life and career==
Eddings was born in [[Spokane, Washington]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=ncs-import |title=Fantasy writer David Eddings dies in Carson City home |url=https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2009/jun/04/fantasy-writer-david-eddings-dies-in-carson-city-h/ |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=www.nevadaappeal.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=David Carroll Eddings '54 |url=https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/november2009/david-eddings-1954.html |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=Reed Magazine {{!}} In Memoriam |language=en-us}}</ref> to George Wayne Eddings and Theone (Berge) Eddings,<ref>[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatson/eddings/faq/archive/text/1.1-19960707 The alt.fan.eddings David Eddings Frequently Asked Questions List]</ref> in 1931. Eddings was known to claim to be part [[Cherokee]].<ref name="starlog.com">{{cite web|title=Recalling the late David Eddings, Lord of Creation|url=http://www.starlog.com/franchises/fantasy-worlds/256-recalling-the-late-david-eddings-lord-of-creation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090815062441/http://www.starlog.com/franchises/fantasy-worlds/256-recalling-the-late-david-eddings-lord-of-creation|archive-date=15 August 2009|access-date=19 August 2015|work=starlog.com}}</ref>

Eddings grew up near [[Puget Sound]] in the City of [[Snohomish, Washington|Snohomish]].<ref>[[The Malloreon#Sorceress of Darshiva|Sorceress of Darshiva]]</ref> After graduating from [[Snohomish High School]] in 1949, he worked for a year before majoring in speech, drama and English at junior college.<ref>David and Leigh Eddings, The Rivan Codex, {{ISBN|0006483496}}, p. 9</ref> Eddings displayed an early talent for drama and literature, winning a national oratorical contest, and performing the male lead in most of his drama productions. He graduated with a BA from [[Reed College]] in 1954, writing his first novel, ''How Lonely Are The Dead'', as his senior thesis. After graduating from Reed College, Eddings was drafted into the U.S. Army,<ref name="auto">David and Leigh Eddings, The Rivan Codex, {{ISBN|0006483496}}, p. 10</ref> having also previously served in the National Guard.<ref name="starlog210">{{cite magazine |last=Nicholls |first=Stan |authorlink=Stan Nicholls |date=January 1995 |editor-last=McDonnell |editor-first=David |title=Ring Bearer |url=https://archive.org/details/starlog_magazine-210 |magazine=[[Starlog]] |issue=210 |pages=76–81 |issn=0191-4626}}</ref> After being discharged in 1956, Eddings attended the graduate school of the [[University of Washington|University of Washington in Seattle]] for four years, graduating with an MA in 1961 after submitting a novel in progress, ''Man Running'', for his thesis.<ref>David and Leigh Eddings, ''The Rivan Codex'', {{ISBN|0006483496}}, p. 3</ref>

After earning his Master's, Eddings worked as a purchaser for [[Boeing]], where he met his future wife, then known as Judith Leigh Schall.<ref name="auto" /> They married in 1962, she taking the name Leigh Eddings, and through most of the 1960s, Eddings worked as an assistant professor at [[Black Hills State College]] in South Dakota.

=== Child abuse conviction ===
Eddings and his wife Leigh pled guilty to 11 counts of [[physical abuse|physical]] [[child abuse]]<ref name="blackhillsweekly-1970feb" /> of their adopted children. They adopted one boy in 1966, Scott David, then two months old,<ref name="queencitymail-1966mar" /><ref name="queencitymail-1970may" /> and subsequently adopted a girl between 1966 and 1969.<ref name="queencitymail-1970may" /> In 1970 the couple lost custody of both children and were each sentenced to a year in jail in separate trials for extensive child abuse of both children.<ref name="blackhillsweekly-1970feb" />  Though the trial and conviction of both David and Leigh Eddings was reported in the local press, the news was not widely disseminated, as Eddings was an obscure academic at the time.  The conviction was consequently not remarked on after Eddings became a well-known author over a decade later, and was not widely publicly revealed until after his death.