Jack Williamson

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Jack Williamson

Jack Williamson
Pseudonym:	Will Stewart
Born:	April 29, 1908 Bisbee, Arizona
Died:	November 10, 2006 Portales, New Mexico, USA
Occupation:	Novelist, short story author, university professor
Genres:	Science fiction
Influences:	Miles J. Breuer, A. Merritt, E. E. Smith, H. G. Wells, Stanley G. Weinbaum
Influenced:	Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl

John Stewart Williamson (April 29, 1908 – November 10, 2006), who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer considered by many the "Dean of Science Fiction". ^[1]

Contents 1 Life 2 Academic career 3 Bibliography 3.1 Series 3.2 Novels 3.3 Short Stories 3.4 Autobiography 4 See also 5 External links 6 Notes 7 References

[edit] Life

Williamson was born April 29, 1908 in Bisbee, Arizona, and spent his early childhood in western Texas. In search of better pastures, his family migrated to rural New Mexico in a horse-drawn covered wagon in 1915. The farming was difficult there and the family turned to ranching, which they continue to this day.

Williamson discovered the local library and used it to educate himself. As a young man, he discovered the magazine Amazing Stories, after answering an ad for one free issue. He strove to write his own fiction, selling his first story at age 20: "The Metal Man" appeared in the Dec. 1928 issue of Amazing Stories. His work during this early period was heavily influenced by A. Merritt.

Early on, he became impressed by the works of Miles J. Breuer and struck up a correspondence with him. A doctor who wrote science fiction in his spare time, Breuer had a strong talent and turned Williamson away from dream-like fantasies towards more rigorous plotting and stronger narrative. Under Breuer's tutelage, Williamson would send outlines and drafts for review. Their first work together was the novel Birth of a New Republic in which moon colonies were undergoing something like the American Revolution.

Wracked by emotional storms and believing many of his physical ailments to be psychosomatic, Williamson underwent psychiatric evaluation in 1933 at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, in which he began to learn to resolve the conflict between his reason and his emotion. From this period, his stories take on a grittier, more realistic tone.

By the 1930s he was an established genre author, and the teenaged Isaac Asimov was thrilled to receive a postcard from Williamson, whom he had idolized, congratulating him on his first published story and saying "welcome to the ranks." Williamson remained a regular contributor to the pulp magazines, though not reaching financial success until many years later. He published many collaborations with the science fiction author Frederik Pohl. He continued to write as a nonagenarian and won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards during the last decade of his life, by far the oldest writer to win those awards.

Williamson received his BA and MA degrees in English in the 1950s from Eastern New Mexico University.

In the mid 1970s, Williamson was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was only the second person to receive this honor. The first was Robert A. Heinlein.

After retiring from teaching full-time in 1977, Williamson spent some time concentrating on his writing, but after being named Professor Emeritus by ENMU, he was coaxed back to co-teach two evening classes, "Creative Writing" and "Fantasy and Science Fiction" (he pioneered the latter at ENMU during his full-time professorship days). Williamson continued to co-teach these two classes well into the 21st century.

In November 2006, Williamson died at his home in Portales, New Mexico at age 98. ^[2] Despite his age, he had made an appearance at the Spring 2005 Jack Williamson Lectureship and published a 320 page novel, The Stonehenge Gate, in 2005.

[edit] Academic career

Williamson received his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees in English in the 1950s from Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) in Portales (along the south-central New Mexico-Texas border), joining the faculty of that university in 1960. He remained affiliated with the school for the rest of his life. In the late 1990s, he established a permanent trust to fund the publication of El Portal, ENMU's journal of literature and art. In the 1980s, he made a sizable donation of books and original manuscripts to ENMU's library, which resulted in the formation of a Special Collections department; the library now is home to the Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library, which ENMU's website describes as "one of the top science fiction collections in the world" ^[3]. In addition, Williamson hosted the Jack Williamson Lectureship Series, an annual panel discussion in which two science fiction authors were invited to speak to attendees on a set topic ^[4].

Williamson completed his Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Colorado in Boulder.^[5], focused on H.G. Wells' earlier works, demonstrating that Wells was not the naive optimist that many believed him to be.

In the field of legitimate science, Jack Williamson coined the word terraforming in a science-fiction story published in 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Series

Legion of Space Series

1. The Legion of Space, 1934
2. The Cometeers, 1936
3. One Against the Legion, 1939
   • Three from the Legion, (Omnibus) 1980
4. The Queen of the Legion, 1982

Legion of Time Series

1. The Legion of Time, 1938
2. After World's End, 1939

Humanoids Series

1. With Folded Hands, 1947
2. The Humanoids, 1949
   • The Humanoids / With Folded Hands (Omnibus) (2002)
3. The Humanoid Touch, 1980

Undersea Trilogy (with Frederik Pohl)

1. Undersea Quest (1954)
2. Undersea Fleet (1956)
3. Undersea City (1958)

Saga of Cuckoo (with Frederik Pohl)

1. Farthest Star (1975)
2. Wall Around A Star (1983)

Starchild Trilogy (with Frederik Pohl)

1. The Reefs of Space (1964)
2. Starchild (1965)
3. Rogue Star (1969)

[edit] Novels

• The Alien Intelligence, 1929
• The Girl from Mars, 1930 (with Miles J. Breuer)
• The Green Girl, 1930
• The Stone from the Green Star, 1931
• Golden Blood, 1933
• Xandulu, 1934
• The Blue Spot, 1935
• Islands of the Sun, 1935
• The Fortress of Utopia, 1939
• Realm of Wizardry, 1940
• Darker Than You Think, 1948
• Seetee Shock, 1949
• Seetee Ship, 1950
• Dragon's Island (aka The Not-Men), 1951
• Star Bridge, 1955 (with James E Gunn)
• The Dome Around America (aka Gateway to Paradise), 1955
• Wolves of Darkness, 1958
• The Trial of Terra, 1962
• The Reign of Wizardry, 1964
• Bright New Universe, 1967
• Trapped in Space, 1968
• Jamboree, 1969
• The Moon Children, 1972
• The Power of Blackness, 1975
• Brother to Demons, Brother to Gods, 1979
• Manseed, 1982
• Lifeburst, 1984
• Firechild, 1986
• Land's End, 1988 (with Frederik Pohl)
• Mazeway, 1990
• The Singers of Time, 1991 (with Frederik Pohl)
• Beachhead, 1992
• Demon Moon, 1994
• The Black Sun, 1997
• The Silicon Dagger, 1999
• Terraforming Earth, 2001
• The Stonehenge Gate, 2005

[edit] Short Stories

• The Metal Man, 1928
• The Cosmic Express, 1930
• The Moon Era, 1931
• Star Bright, 1939
• Hindsight, 1940
• Collision Orbit, 1942 (writing as Will Stewart)
• Minus Sign, 1942 (writing as Will Stewart)
• Opposites - React!, 1943 (writing as Will Stewart)
• With Folded Hands..., 1947
• The Man from Outside, 1951
• Beans, 1958
• Rogue Star, part 2), 1968 (with Frederik Pohl)
• Rogue Star, part 3), 1968 (with Frederik Pohl)
• Jamboree, 1969
• The Highest Dive, 1976
• The Humanoid Universe, 1980
• The Firefly Tree, 1997
• The Pet Rocks Mystery, 1998
• Eden Star, 2000
• The Ultimate Earth, 2000 (awarded the Hugo for Best Novella in 2001)

[edit] Autobiography

Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction. Bluejay Books, New York, 1984. (Hardcover)
Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction. Benbella Books, Dallas, 2005. (Paperback, updated with new photographs and epilogue)

[edit] See also

• Terraforming

[edit] External links

• A bibliography
• Scifi.com interview
• John Clute on Jack Williamson
• NPR audio broadcast on Jack Williamson
• Jack Williamson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Williamson Biography on ENMU website
• Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library at ENMU
• Jack Williamson Lectureship Series
• Jack Williamson Obituary
• Sci-fi legend Williamson dies
• Eastern New Mexico University press release
• Jack Williamson at Internet Book List

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Sam Moskowitz. "Jack Williamson: Four-Way Pioneer", Amazing Stories, October, 1964.