Diana Gabaldon is an American author best known for the Outlander series of historical novels, born in 1952 in Flagstaff, Arizona. Of Mexican-American and English descent, she trained as a scientist, earning degrees in zoology and marine biology and a doctorate in ecology, and spent years as a university professor specializing in scientific computation before turning to fiction.
Gabaldon began writing Outlander in 1988 as a practice novel, with no intention of publishing it. The book, which blends historical fiction, romance, adventure, and time travel, follows a Second World War nurse who is transported to eighteenth-century Scotland. Published in 1991, it became a bestseller and launched a series that has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide.
The Outlander novels are noted for their meticulous historical research, their sweeping scope across Scotland and colonial America, and their blend of genres that has made them difficult to categorize and beloved by a wide readership. The series was adapted into a popular long-running television drama beginning in 2014.
Gabaldon continues to expand the Outlander world through novels, novellas, and companion works. Her scientific background and her genre-crossing storytelling have made her one of the most commercially successful and distinctive historical novelists of her time.
