George Raymond Richard Martin: A Game of Thrones (2334 words)

Lars Johnson (Cornell University)

Ed. by Dimitra Fimi, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present .
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Context

Dates

First Circulation/Publication: 1996

Places

United States (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Fantasy

Other Resources

In 1991, George R.R. Martin began working on what he thought “might be a short story” about some children finding a litter of direwolf pups (Martin 2018). This short story grew quite a bit in the following years though, evolving into A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-present), Martin’s as of yet unfinished epic fantasy series which currently clocks in at over 5,000 pages. The first novel in the series, A Game of Thrones, was published in 1996 and serves as the namesake for the immensely popular HBO adaptation of the story, Game of Thrones (2011-2019). A Game of Thrones was met with acclaim upon its publication, and Martin won a Hugo award for the novella Blood of the Dragon (…

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Citation: Johnson, Lars. "A Game of Thrones". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 May 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39018, accessed 19 August 2022.]

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