Claremont, Chris, 1950-

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Chris Claremont is the internationally recognized comic book writer and novelist best known for his work on Marvel's X-Men comic books and, in particular, his 17 year stint writing the book The Uncanny X-Men.

Claremont was born in London in 1950. His family moved to the U.S. in 1952 and settled in Long Island when Claremont was eight. He attended Bard College where he studied political theory and theatre, though he was regularly writing short stories and drafting novels during his college career as well. Claremont had been an avid comic book reader throughout his youth and, while an undergraduate at Bard, he took a position as a gofer at Marvel Comics.

Upon graduating from Bard in 1972 Claremont pursued a career as an actor, though he continued to write. In 1973 he took a part-time editorial job at Marvel. In 1975 Claremont took a full time position with Marvel as a staff writer. He was hired to reinvigorate the comic The Uncanny X-Men, which, when he took over the book was one of Marvel's least popular titles. Claremont transformed the book into a bestseller for Marvel, and over the course of the next sixteen years Claremont wrote the The Uncanny X-Men and created the spin-off titles= New Mutants, Excalibur, Wolverine, and X-Men . He created, co-created, or significantly developed some of the most complex and fully developed characters in the Marvel canon. In particular, Claremont insisted upon writing strong and nuanced female characters-- a rarity for comic books at the time.

While Claremont is best known for his work on various X-Men titles, his comic career is prolific and includes his work as a writer and editor for Marvel, a free-lance career that includes stints writing for established books such as DC Comics's Justice League of America and creating original work such as the creator-owned book Sovereign Seven and fantasies such as Black Dragon and Marada, the She Wolf.

In addition to his work in the comics industry, Claremont is a prolific novelist whose work includes First Flight, the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy based on the George Lucas film Willow, and Dragon Moon, co-authored with his wife, editor and writer Beth Fleisher.

From the guide to the Chris Claremont Papers, 1973-2011., (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)