(Content warning) So it turns out that David Eddings was a convicted and jailed child abuser

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Werthead

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And his wife too.

This isn't even a Marion Zimmer Bradley, allegations made after death kind of thing. They were arrested, put on trial and they both went to jail for a year in 1970 for imprisoning and torturing their adopted son. Both their adopted son and daughter were removed from their custody and their adoption papers revoked. Eddings lost his job working in academia in South Dakota and they were forced to relocate to another state, Eddings having to take a job working in a grocery store because he couldn't get another job teaching young people for love nor money (and probably legal requirements).

There is no suggestion of sexual abuse, but the details of the story are still pretty grim. They had a dog cage in their basement (where several animals lived) that they made their four-year-old adopted son sit in for hours and perhaps days at a time, and inflicted physical punishment on him with a belt and other implements. They were literally caught red-handed in the middle of beating him when the cops showed up and arrested them.

After becoming famous, Eddings joked that he left academia because the pay was better working in groceries. In the pre-Internet age the story never came up (in fact, they didn't even change their names, otherwise the story may have never come to light).

It should be noted you don't need to go burn your Eddings books: Leigh died in 2007, David in 2009 and all proceeds from their estate now go to Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
 
I hope that's true. @Werthead anything on them? Or is there a link I missed in the text? (Reading on my phone....)
The link at the very top "and his wife too" leads to a more detailed article, a good way through it there is mention that the kids are in good health
Quote: "Both of their formerly adopted children appear to be in good health, which is good news"
 
It makes me sick to think that two such people who did such deeds achieved fame, wealth and popularity . What they both really deserved was poverty , obscurity and more jail time then they got. :mad:
 
Welp. That's not cool. And regardless of where the money goes, not something where I can separate art from artist easily. Don't think I'll be recommending him in future.
 
This is a, rather extreme, good reason why I tend to never bother learning much about authors. I'd rather just enjoy their writing than worry if the creator is a good person or not.

Though this one doesn't affect me too much as whilst I know of Eddings, I've never really read into his work.
 
This honestly doesn't really surprise me, considering how this seems to be the age of ousting out the powerful elite guilty. I wouldn't be surprised if there'll be some dirt dug up on Piers Anthony at some point either, considering some of the stuff he's written.


A shame, I'll say, to find out about this, considering back in the day Eddings was actually one of the first authors that really got me into fantasy, but as OR just said there, the less known, the better.
 
This is really sad. I love Belgariad and Malloreon series and I like to re-read them from time to time. I'm not sure I can do it again after reading this. Even if somebody proves that the story is not true, it will bever be the same.
 
There are (I saw them online not too long ago) actual newspaper clippings from some rag called The Black Hills Journal, they are dated 1970 and give details of the trial of the Eddings couple.
It's definitely the same people
 
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