Judith Merkle Riley (January 14, 1942 – September 12, 2010) was an American writer, teacher and academic who wrote six

historical romance Historical romance is a broad category of mass-market fiction focusing on romantic relationships in historical periods, which Walter Scott helped popularize in the early 19th century. Varieties Viking These books feature Vikings during the Dar ...

novels.

Biography

Judith Astria Merkle was born in 1942 and grew up in

Livermore, California Livermore (formerly Livermorès, Livermore Ranch, and Nottingham) is a city in Alameda County, California. With a 2020 population of 87,955, Livermore is the most populous city in the Tri-Valley. It is located on the eastern edge of Californ ...

. Her great-uncle was

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player

Fred Merkle Carl Frederick Rudolf Merkle (also sometimes documented as Frederick Charles Merkle; December 20, 1888 – March 2, 1956), nicknamed "Bonehead", was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball from 1907 to 1926. Although he had a lengthy c ...

. Her father, Theodore Charles Merkle, ran

Project Pluto Project Pluto was a United States government program to develop nuclear-powered ramjet engines for use in cruise missiles. Two experimental engines were tested at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in 1961 and 1964 respectively. On 1 January 1957, t ...

, and her brothers, Ted Merkle DVM is a well respected veterinarian serving Shasta County,

Ralph Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...

is a pioneer in public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on

molecular nanotechnology Molecular nanotechnology (MNT) is a technology based on the ability to build structures to complex, atomic specifications by means of mechanosynthesis. This is distinct from nanoscale materials. Based on Richard Feynman's vision of miniatur ...

and

cryonics Cryonics (from el, κρύος ''kryos'' meaning 'cold') is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains, with the speculative hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticis ...

. She earned a MA from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and held a Ph.D. from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

and taught in the Department of Government at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. She wrote six historical fiction novels, starting in 1988. She was married and had two children, a daughter Elizabeth and a son Marlow. Riley died on September 12, 2010, from

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different c ...

Bibliography

Medieval World of Margaret of Ashbury series

#''A Vision of Light'' (1988) #''In Pursuit of the Green Lion'' (1990) #''The Water-devil'' (2007)

Single novels

*''The Oracle Glass'' (1994) *''The Serpent Garden'' (1996) *''The Master of All Desires'' (1999)

References

External links

Judith Merkle Riley in Fantastic Fiction
1942 births 2010 deaths American romantic fiction writers Deaths from ovarian cancer Deaths from cancer in California Novelists from Maine People from Livermore, California People from Brunswick, Maine American women novelists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers Women romantic fiction writers University of California, Berkeley alumni Claremont McKenna College faculty Novelists from California American women academics 21st-century American women Harvard University alumni {{US-novelist-1940s-stub