As the obsession with the American TV fantasy drama series ‘Game of Thrones’ continues its phenomenal growth, Texas A&M University – which houses the oldest public university in the state – has invited devoted fans to pick through a huge archive belonging to the author of the original novels to discover clues about upcoming storylines.
The TV series is based on the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ novels by Georges Martin, who deposited his archives at the university’s Cushing Library in 1993, three years before the first novel in the series was published. The massive collection consists of 300 boxes of hand-written notes, along with manuscripts and papers and more than 1,300 books from his personal cache.
Martin’s archive serves as a literary treasure that illustrates the renowned author’s fantasy writing style and gives the public insights into his career in science fiction.
Martin is currently working on the sixth book, ‘The Winds of Winter’, which is expected to be published next year. Publishers expect the novel to break sales records, especially in the United States, Canada, Australia and Eastern Asia. As a testament to his popularity and literary talents, in 2011 Time Magazine placed Martin in the top 100 most influential people in the world.