WONDER'S CHILD: My Life in Science Fiction

by Jack Williamson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1984

Grandmaster Williamson (b. 1908) sold his first story, ""The Metal Man,"" to Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories in 1928; he has written scholarly articles on the sf of H. G. Wells; and he continues to write superior novels (most recently Manseed, 1982). His experiences are central, therefore, to the development of modern science fiction--and he relates them with refreshing forthrightness and lack of egotism. Born to a father who was a frustrated pioneer, Williamson found himself, at age seven, in a covered wagon headed for a desolate homesteading spot in northern Mexico. He grew up independent, self-reliant, a social misfit--his only consolation the sf pulps to which he soon became a regular contributor. (Gernsback gets his due as an epoch-maker; but he paid too poorly and unreliably, Williamson notes, to win the respect of the pulp fictioneers.) After a WW II stint as an Army weather forecaster, Williamson wrote for the more professional magazines that had replaced the pulps (like Campbell's Astounding); produced novels, along with a syndicated comic strip, ""Beyond Mars""; returned to college to earn a doctorate in English literature; helped pioneer the study of sf as a serious literary form; and later became president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. His activities, then, cover the entire spectrum of sf (at one time or another, he has met virtually everyone)--and no one seriously interested in sf will want to miss his warm, wry, off-hand memoir.

Pub Date: May 1, 1984

ISBN: 1932100571

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bluejay--dist. by St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION