Bradley, Marion Zimmer (1930-1999)

Marion Zimmer Bradley, popular writer of fantasy fiction with occult themes, was born on June 3, 1930, in Albany, New York. Her literary skills manifested in her childhood, and at the age of 11 she founded an alternative school newspaper. The choice of themes in her works was heavily influenced by her early interests in magic, mythology, and Arthurian legends. She attended the New York State Teachers College for three years, during which time she married Robert A. Bradley (1949). The Bradleys moved to Texas, where he worked on the railroad and she bore their first child. She also joined the AMORC Rosicrucians, from whom she received her initial occult training.

Bradley began her serious writing during the early 1950s. She published a few pieces of short fiction and finally in 1955, her first novel, Seven from the Stars, appeared. In 1959 she separated from her husband and moved to Abilene, Texas, where she finished college at Hardin Simmons University. By the time she graduated, her novels were selling so well that she was able to become a full-time author. In 1963 she moved to Berkeley, California. The following year she divorced her husband and married Walter Breen. In 1963, Breen had been consecrated as a bishop in the Evangelical Catholic Communion, an independent liturgical church, in which he was named Bishop of Berkeley. Bradley and Breen joined in the formation of a new occult group, the Aquarian Order of the Restoration, dedicated to restoring worship to the Goddess. The group, which at its height had less than 20 members, continued until 1982.

In the late 1970s Bradley joined with a number of other women in the Bay Area to form what became known as The Dark Circle. Though primarily a women's group and not a witchcraft coven, it did include Wiccans among its members. Bradley withdrew after several years, but her participation fueled speculation that she was a Wiccan, a fact that she vehemently denied. Speculation peaked following the publication of her most successful book, The Mists of Avalon (1983), a retelling of the King Arthur legend from a feminist perspective. It has appeared on many Pagan reading lists and reviewers suggested that much of it must have come by way of channeling. In response, Bradley asserted her Christian beliefs (though of a somewhat feminist and unorthodox variety), and the lack of any channeled material in her work. She also believed that a return to an agricultural religion in an age of high technology did not make sense.

Bradley emerged at the top of her profession in the 1990s. In 1988 she launched a periodical, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine. She continued to write bestselling novels known for featuring strong women characters; edited an annual anthology, Sword and Sorceress; and left several unfinished manuscripts in the works at the time of her death in Berkeley on September 25, 1999.

Sources:

Bradley, Marion Zimmer. Lady of Avalon. New York: Viking, 1997.

——. Mists of Avalon. New York: Del Rey, 1983, 1987. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft. New York: Facts on File, 1989.