Jean Wells (1955-2012)

I just heard of Jean Well's passing via Grognardia earlier today. I mainly associate Wells with the original orange cover B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, but she was also the original "sage" of Dragon's Sage Advice column. Zenopus Archives reports the following bibliography:

Jean Wells - TSR Bibliography
Monster Manual (1979) - Interior Art added to Aug 1979 revision (Eye of the Deep, Giant Sumatran Rat, Otyugh (with "Dave"), Violet Fungi)
S2 White Plume Mountain (1979) - Editor
Lost Tamaochan (1979) - Interior Art and other help
Rogues Gallery (1980) - Design (Co-Author), Editing and Layout; includes her character Ceatitle
B2 Keep on the Borderlands (1980) - Editor
B3 Palace of the Silver Princess (1981) - Author and Interior Art
A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords (1981) - Interior Art
Polyhedron #3 (Winter 1981) - Interior Art ("Plant Creature" = Jupiter Blood Sucker from B3)
Polyhedron #4 (Jan 1982) - Interior Art (illustration of Duchess and Candella)
Sage Advice column in Dragon (years?)

Grognardia ran a two part interview with Wells here and here. Another interview is available through the Save or Die podcast here.

Rest in Peace.

-Havard

A bit of TSR History

The more I dig into the older D&D material, the more interested I get in getting to know the people behind the game products that form the basis of our beloved hoby. Fortunately, I don't have to do all the research myself.
Grognardia is running an interview with Jean Wells, the original author of B3: Palace of the Silver Princess (Read part II of the interview here). A few weeks back, Steve Winter also wrote an interesting article on his blog with pictures of the old days at TSR. Both are recommended reading if you are interested in these things, just as I am!

(Mark Acres, Harold Johnson, Tom Moldvay and Mike Price)

(Picture shamelessly stolen from Steve Winter)

-Havard