John Jakes

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  • Bibliography:
    54 Books (5 Series)
  • First Book:
    June 1960
  • Latest Book:
    August 2012
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About the Author

John Jakes was born in Chicago, graduated from De Pauw University, and gained his MA in Literature at Ohio State. He worked for fifteen years at various creative posts in advertising before deciding to write full-time.
John Jakes is the author of short stories, plays and novels, including the ambitious and brilliantly researched international bestseller, the North and South Trilogy - North and South, Love and War and Heaven and Hell. The first two volumes were made into a highly successful television mini-series.
The Kent Family Chronicles, the eight volume, bestselling epic saga, was first published between 1974 and 1980.

Full Series List in Order

Brak the Barbarian

1 - Brak the Barbarian (1969)
2 - The Sorceress (1969)
3 - The Mark of the Demon (1969)
Brak vs. Mark Demon (Aug-1977)
Brak vs. Sorceress (Oct-1977)
Brak: When The Idols Walked (Jan-1978)
Fortunes of Brak (Jan-1980)

Crown Family

1 - Homeland (Jun-1993)
2 - American Dreams (Jul-1998)

Johnny Havoc

1 - Johnny Havoc (Jun-1960)
2 - Havoc for Sale // Johnny Havoc Meets Zelda (Jun-1962)
3 - Holiday for Havoc // Johnny Havoc and the Doll Who Had 'It' (Jun-1963)
4 - Johnny Havoc and the Siren in Red // Making It Big (Jun-1968)

The Kent Family Chronicles

1 - The Bastard (Sep-1974)
2 - The Rebels (Mar-1975)
3 - The Seekers (Aug-1975)
4 - The Furies (May-1976)
5 - The Titans (Jul-1976)
6 - The Warriors (Apr-1977)
7 - The Lawless (Apr-1978)
8 - The Americans (Feb-1980)

North and South

1 - North and South (Aug-1982)
2 - Love and War (Nov-1984)
3 - Heaven and Hell (Sep-1988)

Multi-Author Series List

Planet of the Apes

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (Dec-1969)

Book List in Order: 54 titles

  • Johnny Havoc

    Johnny Havoc - 1

    While investigating the murder of two newlyweds who were killed while on their honeymoon, Johnny begins to suspect that the crime may be connected to the pharmaceutical company owned by the dead bride's father...

  • Havoc for Sale // Johnny Havoc Meets Zelda

    Johnny Havoc - 2

  • Holiday for Havoc // Johnny Havoc and the Doll Who Had 'It'

    Johnny Havoc - 3

  • When the Star Kings Die

    • / Science Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    In the tenth age of the star kings of II Galaxy... In that far off day of a far off future when mankind had spread beyond the Home Cluster, there was a man called Dragonard. Dragonard the Beast some called this fallen warrior of the immortal Lords of...

  • Johnny Havoc and the Siren in Red // Making It Big

    Johnny Havoc - 4

  • Brak the Barbarian

    Brak the Barbarian - 1

    13 original horror tales with a Forward by Joe R. Lansdale, Introduction by Brian A. Hopkins, listing of 13 World Horror Convention, Bram Stoker Winners. 2 pages in bound in front signed by all 17 contributors. Limited to 176 copies....

  • The Mark of the Demon

    Brak the Barbarian - 3

    "We go to the dark. We ride to the awful dark. A stranger leads us, a savage man. His presence brings the evil down!" The soothsayer's grim words chilled the hearts of the travellers. Even the iron nerves of Brak the Barbarian twanged with forebod...

  • The Sorceress

    Brak the Barbarian - 2

    "The road is long to Khurdtsan, Barbarian. Beware of Septegundus. I will be there!" Brak the Barbarian, outcast from the wild northern steppes of his own people, journeyed southward to golden Khurdisan. He rode alone through a world of savagery...

  • Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

    Planet of the Apes

    THE TIME: 1990 THE PLACE: A gray, tightly computerized city-state, somewhere in North America THE INHABITANTS: Apes who serve as terrified slaves, Men who function as brutalized masters Until the Apes revolt... in a battle as savage and mons...



  • The Bastard

    The Kent Family Chronicles - 1

    Set against the rich fabric of our heritage, and the colorful tumult of events that gave rise to a fledgling nation, this vibrant novel of romance and adventure introduces a stunning new historical figure to excite the imaginings of future generation...

  • The Rebels

    The Kent Family Chronicles - 2

    The glittering saga of our America -- and the people who made her great. Beginning with a rag-tag group of Continental soldiers awaiting the British charge on Breed's Hill, and sweeping across the luminous fabric of our Nation's earliest, war-torn y...

  • The Seekers

    The Kent Family Chronicles - 3

    The glittering saga of our America -- and the people who made her great. With the end of the colonies' fight for independence begins a new and even more glorious battle to build a new nation. It is an epoch ripe with the passion that only a country...

  • Veils Of Salome

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

  • The Furies

    The Kent Family Chronicles - 4

    The glittering saga of our America -- and the people who made her great. Spanning the young American continent . . . its burgeoning east coast cities . . . its warring frontiers . . . its lawless towns of the West . . . the continuing saga of the Ke...

  • The Titans

    The Kent Family Chronicles - 5

    The bold glittering saga of our America--and the people who made her great. Raging with the heartbreaks and tragedies of our nation's darkest hours, this passionate saga follows a dynamic generation of Kents through the hell of Civil War--from New Y...

  • The Warriors

    The Kent Family Chronicles - 6

    The glittering saga of our America -- and the people who made her great. As the Civil War draws to its inevitable climax, THE WARRIORS carries the turbulent chronicle of the divided Kent family to far-reaching new battlefields. A gracious Southern p...

  • Brak vs. Mark Demon

    Brak the Barbarian

  • Brak vs. Sorceress

    Brak the Barbarian

    A Cursed Realm. Making his way south toward the golden land of Khurdistan, Brak must first traverse the desolate territory of the Manworn - a land gripped by terror of things unknown and awful - a land of unseen watchers and horrifying riddles - a la...

  • The Man from Cannae



  • Planet Wizard

  • Brak: When The Idols Walked

    Brak the Barbarian

  • Time Gate

  • The Lawless

    The Kent Family Chronicles - 7

    The glittering saga of our America -- and the people who made her great. Postwar prosperity had transformed the nation. The Kents were thrust into the daring occupations of our country's most reckless and corrupt era...feverish speculation in the ea...

  • Secrets of Stardeep

  • On Wheels

  • A Night for Treason

  • Fortunes of Brak

    Brak the Barbarian

    BRAK THE BARBARIAN PITS SWORD AND SOUL AGAINST SORCERY IN AN EPIC QUEST THROUGH FABLED LANDS The mighty yellow-haired Brak stalked from the frozen north on a journey that would take him to Prince Hamur's haunted palace with its demon leopards and ...

  • The Americans

    The Kent Family Chronicles - 8

    A NATION ADRIFT -- AND THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO GAVE IT HOPE It was the whip-end of an era -- when innocence died and money lust was enthroned. The new generation of Kents was locked in a feverish race for wealth -- even as Europe's millions poured acr...

  • The Barbarian

    A warrior forced to battle the evil that thwarts his destiny, Brak must combat sorcery and plagues as he journeys south to Khurdisan. Before reaching this paradise city, he must hack his way through the obstacle after obstacle as he passes through un...



  • The Mark of Demons

  • The Seventh Man

  • Excalibur

  • North and South

    North and South - 1

    THE MAINS-Carolina plantation owners, they proudly defended their leisurely, aristocratic way of life. THE HAZARDS -- Pennsylvania industrialists descended from an English fugitive, they lived in the thrilling world of invention and commerce. T...

  • Love and War

    North and South - 2

    #1 New York Times bestselling author John Jakes presents part two of the epic North and South Trilogy—the Civil War saga that inspired the classic television miniseries North and South—with over five million copies sold!...

  • Mention My Name in Atlantis

    • / Science Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    A courtesan for hire, a brainless hunk, and alien invaders combine to bring about ancient history’s most momentous catastrophe in John Jakes’s hilarious take on the fall of Atlantis For centuries the mystery of the lost continent of Atlantis has ...

  • Heaven and Hell

    North and South - 3

    THE MIGHTY CONCLUSION TO AMERICA'S BEST-LOVED SAGA GEORGE HAZARD -- He will discover that not even the terrors of the Civil War could exact the terrible price he'd pay in a country at peace but still ablaze with hatred. MADELINE MAIN -- She fac...

  • California Gold

    James Macklin Chase was a poor Pennsylvanian who dreamed of making it rich in California. But at the turn of the century, the money to be made was in oil, citrus, water rights, and the railroads. Mack would have it all, if he had his way. And along t...

  • Susanna of the Alamo

    “Remember the Alamo!” is one of the most familiar battle cries in American history, yet few know about the brave woman who inspired it. Susanna Dickinson’s story reveals the crucial role she played during that turbulent period in Texas-American...

  • The Big Country

    Best-selling author of The Kent Family  Chronicles and the three-volume Civil War  epic North And South, John  Jakes is one of America's favorite historical  novelists. But Jakes is also a master of Frontier fiction.  Here, for the first ti...



  • In the Big Country // The Bold Frontier

    From the author of such American epics as the Kent Family Chronicles and the North and South trilogy comes this special anthology of frontier fiction -- featuring three brand new stories and a special introduction by the author....

  • Homeland

    Crown Family - 1

    Living in the Chicago mansion of his brewery tycoon uncle, Pauli Kroner clashes with his proud guardian and, forced into life on the city's dark side, becomes Paul Crown, a man driven by power and ambition. Reprint....

  • New Trails

    New, never-before-published stories from members of the Western Writers of America include Elmore Leonard's "Hurrah for Captain Early," John Jakes's "Manitow and Ironhand," and Judy Alter's "Sweet Revenge."...

  • Six Gun Planet

  • American Dreams

    Crown Family - 2

    From America's master storyteller and writer of historical fiction comes the epic story of the Crown family--first introduced in the New York Times bestseller Homeland. As the second generation comes of age, the Crowns strive to find their place in a...

  • On Secret Service

    John Jakes, the acclaimed author of the #1 New York Times bestselling North and South Trilogy, returns to the Civil War with On Secret Service -- the story of two couples, divided by war and allegiance, who discover that love doesn’t take sides. A ...

  • Crime Time

  • Charleston

    JAKES'S ACCLAIMED SAGA OF A SOUTH CAROLINA DYNASTY FROM THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR With more than 50 million books in print, John Jakes is one of the preeminent novelists of American historical fiction. Now the bestselling author ...

  • The Mark of the Demons

    Brak has entered the supernatural realm in which his mighty broadsword is useless. His bravery replaced by fear, Brak must find the strength to defeat the Mark of the Demons. Along the way, he must block out the seductive voices emanating from the de...

  • When The Idols Walked



  • Savannah, or, A Gift for Mr. Lincoln

    Georgia, 1864: Sherman’s army marches inexorably from Atlanta to the sea. In its path, the charming old city of Savannah, where the Lester ladies … attractive widowed Sara and her feisty twelve-year-old daughter Hattie … struggle to save the fa...

  • The Gods of Newport

    In the late nineteenth century, Newport, Rhode Island, was a cauldron of undeclared class warfare where reputations were made and lost in a whirlwind of parties and fancied slights. Where giant marble mansions called "cottages" arose and where--amid ...

  • The Spider Chronicles

    • More just than the law, more dangerous than the Underworld...hated, feared, and wanted by both. One cloaked, fanged, border-line crazy denizen of the dark force, feeding hard justice with a pair of 45's! Moonstone is proud to present 20 new ...

  • The Bold Frontier

    The Bold Frontier collects bestselling author John Jakes’s timeless stories about the untamed American West. Jakes thrillingly portrays the harsh realities of life on the frontier with tales of lawmen in the Sierra Nevada, railroad workers in Kansa...

  • The Funeral of Tanner Moody

    A collaborative novel written by nine of today's greatest Western authors, including John Jakes, Elmer Kelton and Robert J. Randisi....

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

John Jakes has published 54 books.

John Jakes does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Funeral of Tanner Moody, was published in August 2012.

The first book by John Jakes, Johnny Havoc, was published in June 1960.

Yes. John Jakes has 5 series.
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