Jack Williamson

John Stewart Williamson (born April 29, 1908), who writes as Jack Williamson but has occasionally used the pseudonym Will Stewart, is considered the "Dean of Science fiction".

Related Topics:
April 29 - 1908 - Pseudonym - Science fiction

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Williamson 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.

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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. He first sold a story to an American pulp magazine in 1928. 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". Thereafter, he was a regular contributor to the pulp magazines, though not reaching financial success until many years later. He has published many collaborations with the SF author Frederik Pohl. He continues to write as a nonagenarian.

Related Topics:
Amazing Stories - American - Pulp magazine - 1928 - 1930s - Isaac Asimov - Frederik Pohl - Nonagenarian

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One of his early series, The Legion of Space, was a space opera whose characters were taken from the Three Musketeers, with Falstaff added. This was suggested to him by another pulp author, and saved bother. His subsequent Legion of Time was the first story to feature alternative future civilizations sending agents back to the present day to fight over the action which will decide which of them will even be in existence. Hence it is the precursor to the Terminator series of films.

Related Topics:
Legion of Space - Three Musketeers - Falstaff - Legion of Time - Terminator

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An unfavorable review of one of his books, which compared the writing to that of a comic strip, brought Williamson to the attention of The New York Sunday News, which needed a science fiction writer for a new comic strip. Williamson wrote the strip "Beyond Mars", loosely based on his novel Seetee Ship for several years until the paper dropped all comics.

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Williamson's most famous story is arguably "With Folded Hands", a cautionary tale of life made too easy. This story introduced the humanoid robots, dubbed simply humanoids which figure in several of Williamson's novels as the premise established in "With Folded Hands" plays out across the galaxy.

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In the field of legitimate science, Jack Williamson coined the word terraforming.

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Novels:

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• 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
• With Folded Hands, 1947
• Darker Than You Think, 1948
• 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
• Narabedla, Ltd., 1988 (with Frederik Pohl)
• Land's End, 1988 (with Frederik Pohl)
• But Not Warriors, 1989
• 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
 
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