Jack Vance

John Holbrook Vance (b. August 28, 1916 in San Francisco, California; various alternative birthdates between 1916 and 1920 have been cited in different sources) is generally described as an American fantasy and science fiction author, though it has been reported that Vance himself objects to that label http://www.vie-tracking.com/cosmo/Vol01No03final.htm#VanceSFAuthor. He writes chiefly under his informal name, Jack Vance. In past years he wrote mysteries under his full formal name and also as Ellery Queen, Alan Wade, Peter Held, and John van See. He has won numerous awards and honors: Hugo Awards — in 1963 for The Dragon Masters and in 1967 for The Last Castle; a Nebula Award in 1966, also for The Last Castle; the Jupiter Award in 1975; the World Fantasy Award in 1984 for life achievement and in 1990 for Lyonesse: Madouc; an Edgar (the mystery equivalent of the Hugo) for the best first mystery novel in 1961 for The Man in the Cage; in 1990 he was named a SFWA Grand Master; and in 1992 he was Guest of Honor at the WorldCon in Orlando, Florida. He is generally highly regarded by critics and colleagues, some of whom have suggested that he transcends genre labels and should be regarded as an important writer by mainstream standards. For instance, Poul Anderson once called him the greatest living American writer "in" science fiction (not "of" science fiction). Frank Herbert and Poul Anderson were among Vance's closest friends in the SF community.

Biography

Vance's grandfather supposedly arrived in California from Michigan a decade before the Gold Rush and married a San Francisco girl. (Early family records were apparently destroyed in the fire following the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake). Vance grew up on a ranch in the area of the San Joaquin Valley round the delta of the Sacramento River and was an avid reader of the popular adventure-oriented pulp fiction of the 1920s. He left high school early and worked for some years as a construction worker, bell-hop, in a cannery and on a dredger before entering the University of California, Berkeley where over a six-year period he majored in mining engineering and also studied physics, journalism and English, but took time off to work as an electrician in the naval shipyards at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He graduated in 1942 and did war service as a seaman in the Merchant Marine, twice surviving being torpedoed. In later years blue water sailing remained one of his favourite recreations,a nd ships, boats and sea voyages are frequently encountered in his novels and stories. Later he worked as a carpenter. At university and afterwards he was active in jazz bands as a horn player, and his first published writings were reviews of jazz concerts, as a columnist for The Daily Californian. Music of various kinds is an element of many of his fictions, from grand opera (in Space Opera) to the world of his classic short story 'The Moon Moth', whose inhabitants converse in elaborately prescribed modes of song, accompanying themselves on hand-held keyed percussion instruments.

Related Topics:
Gold Rush - 1906 San Francisco Earthquake - San Joaquin Valley - Sacramento River - Pulp fiction - University of California, Berkeley - Pearl Harbor - Hawaii - Merchant Marine - Jazz

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In 1946 Vance met and married Norma Ingold. During the 1950s he travelled extensively in Europe. He has lived most of his adult life in the hills above Oakland, California. He began his full-time writing career in the late 1940s, the period in which the San Francisco Renaissance--a broad movement of experimentation in literature and the arts (ranging from poetry through architecture)--was in its early stages. Vance's own references to Bay Area bohemian life (directly in his early mysteries and in disguised form in his science-fiction novels) suggest affinities with this movement although not with its beat-generation subdivision. Certainly Vance's "Sailmaker Beach," the bohemian quarter of Avente on the planet Alphanor, is an overlay of San Francisco's North Beach, while the mad poet Navarth is said to be based on Kenneth Rexroth. Although Vance has become legally blind in his old age, he continues to write with the aid of special software, his most recent novel being the whimsical Lurulu.

Related Topics:
Oakland - San Francisco Renaissance - Bay Area - Navarth - Kenneth Rexroth - Lurulu

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