Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling book franchise has captivated audiences and readers across the globe – with the story of Claire and Jamie Fraser being brought to life.
Outlander fans have been left ‘amazed’ after realising the franchise, which was first brought to life by Diana Gabaldon, has hit a major milestone.
Now adapted for the small screen by Starz, leading actors Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe have wonderfully brought the characters of Claire and Jamie Fraser to life, amassing fans across the globe.
Having marked a huge milestone on Thursday this week, fans took to Reddit to celebrate nearly four decades on from Diana Gabaldon first publishing Outlander.
“On this day, 37 years ago, Diana Gabaldon started writing Outlander!,” one fan shared to the thread, as they posted a photo of the original book cover.
Fans soon rushed to the comments, equally astonished by the news, as one person penned: “I’m amazed that outlander is older than I am.”
Someone else echoed, “Crazy the series is that old, and I only discovered it for the first time a few years ago,” as another wrote, “I read my copy with that cover so many times the book fell apart.”
“I was 30 years old in 1988. These books were right up my alley. How I remained completely oblivious to their existence until 2022 boggles the mind,” quipped a fourth.
Gabaldon had aspired to be a novelist since she was eight years old, but life intervened, and she didn’t write her first novel until she was 35. Her mother served as her writing inspiration, and once she started, she “never stopped.”
Diana was 39 when Outlander first graced the bookshelves, and she reflects on her motivation to start writing: “When I turned 35, I told myself I’d better get started writing. Mozart died at thirty-six.”
Outlander quickly found its way onto the bestseller lists of Walden and B. Dalton—two of the biggest bookstore chains in the 1990s, ubiquitous across American shopping malls, although it wasn’t until her third book that Gabaldon broke into the New York Times list.
Interestingly, the historical romance series was originally named Cross Stitch, a nod to protagonist Claire Randall’s time-crossing journey from post-WWII Inverness, Scotland, to the same location two centuries prior.