Fantasy author David Eddings past away yesterday at the age of 77. He will be remembered for his contribution to the fantasy genre through The Belgariad and The Malloreon series.
About.com posted an obituary for Eddings, I think it’s quite a nice tribute:
Eddings was famously old-fashioned, never using a typewriter or computer (he wrote out his scripts in long-hand) and was well-known for being self-effacing, once remarking, “I’m never going to be in danger of getting a Nobel Prize for literature.” He was most pleased when told that his books had turned nonreaders into booklovers. “I look upon this as perhaps my purpose in life,” he explained in a 1997 interview. “I am here to teach a generation or two how to read. After they’ve finished with me and I don’t challenge them any more, they can move on to somebody important like Homer or Milton.”