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] April 29 is the 119th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (120th in leap years). ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... November 10 is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 51 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A pseudonym (Greek: false name) is a fictitious name used by an individual as an alternative to his or her legal name. ... United States is the current Good Article Collaboration of the week! Please help to improve this article to the highest of standards. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...

Life

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. Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  Ranked 5th  - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²)  - Width 342 miles (550 km)  - Length 370 miles (595 km)  - % water 0. ... The Conestoga Wagon is a heavy, broad-wheeled covered freight carrier used extensively during the United States Westward Expansion in the late 1700s and 1800s. ...

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. Amazing Stories magazine, sometimes retitled Amazing Science Fiction, began in April 1926, becoming the first science fiction magazine and one of the pioneers of science fiction in the United States. ... Abraham Merritt (January 20, 1884-August 21, 1943) was an American editor and author of works of fantastic fiction. ...

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. Miles J. Breuer, (1889 – 1947) a U.S. doctor by trade, is better known to science fiction aficionadoes as a writer for many pulp magazines, including Amazing Stories and Argosy. ...

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. The Menninger Clinic was founded in 1925 in Topeka, Kansas, by Drs. ... Coordinates: Country United States State Kansas County Shawnee Founded December 5, 1854 Incorporated February 14, 1857 Mayor Bill Bunten (R) Area    - City 147. ...

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. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Isaac Asimov, Ph. ... Frederik Pohl (born November 26, 1919) is a noted American science fiction writer and editor, with a career spanning over sixty years. ... A nonagenarian is a person in the age group from 90 to 99 years old. ...

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 Heinlen. The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is an award given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. ... Science Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA, (SFWA is pronounced seff-wah) was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight and James Blish. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

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

Academic career

Williamson received his BA and MA degrees in English in the 1950s from Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU), in the town of Portales, New Mexico (along the south-central New Mexico-Texas), joining the faculty of that university in 1960. He remained affiliated with the school for the rest of his life, actually co-teaching two classes, Creative Writing and Fantasy and Science Fiction, as recently as 2003. 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]. The 1950s was the decade spanning the years 1950 to 1959. ... Eastern New Mexico University, (abbreviated ENMU), frequently called Eastern, is a state university in Portales, New Mexico, USA. It is the youngest state university in New Mexico. ... Portales is a municipality in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, with a total population of 11,131 (as of the 2000 census). ...

Williamson completed his doctorate (PhD) in English literature at the University of Colorado^[1], focused on H.G. Wells' earlier works, demonstrating that Wells was not the naive optimist that many believed him to be. The University of Colorado (CU) System consists of five campuses: University of Colorado at Boulder University of Colorado at Colorado Springs University of Colorado at Denver University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Fitzsimons campus of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, scheduled to open in 2007 in Aurora, Colorado... H. G. Wells at the door of his house at Sandgate Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 - August 13, 1946) was an English writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. ...

In the field of legitimate science, Jack Williamson coined the word terraforming in a science-fiction story published in 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction. Artists conception of a terraformed Mars in four stages of development. ... Astounding Stories was a seminal science fiction magazine founded in 1930. ...

Works

The Legion of Space

While attending a Great Books course, Williamson learned that Henryk Sienkiewicz had created one of his works by taking the Three Musketeers of Alexandre Dumas and pairing them with John Falstaff of William Shakespeare. Williamson took this idea into science fiction with The Legion of Space. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Core Curriculum. ... Henryk Oszyk-Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Oszyk-Sienkiewicz (pronounce: ) (May 5, 1846 - November 15, 1916) was a Polish novelist, one of the outstanding writers of the second half of the 19th century. ... The Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. ... Alexandre Dumas redirects here. ... Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare primarily as a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. Round and glorious, tradition holds that Shakespeare wrote the part for his second comedian, a fat man, John Heminges, who played a bold... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

At the time desperate for money, he searched for a quick source of income. While most pulps of the time were slow to pay, the recently re-started Astounding had a quick turnaround in Williamson's experience, but did not accept novels, so he submitted three short stories and a novelet. Learning that they were also accepting novels for serialization, he sent in The Legion of Space, which was published in six parts. It quickly became a genre favorite, and was quickly collected into a hardcover. A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ...

The story takes place in an era when humans have colonized the Solar System but dare not go farther, as the first extra-solar expedition, to Barnard's Star, failed and the survivors came back as babbling, grotesque, diseased madmen. They spoke of a gigantic planet, populated by ferocious animals and the single city left of the evil "Medusae." The Medusae bear a vague resembance to jellyfish, but are actually elephant-sized, four-eyed, flying beings with hundreds of tentacles. The Medusae cannot speak and communicate with one another via a microwave code.

The Falstaff character is named Giles Habibula. He was once a criminal, and can open any lock ever made. In his youth he was called Giles The Ghost. Jay Kalam (Commander of The Legion) and Hal Samdu are the names of the other two warriors. In this story these warriors of the 30th Century battle the Medusae, the alien race from the lone planet of Barnard's Star. The Legion itself is the military and police force of the Solar System after the overthrow of an empire called the Purple Hall that once ruled all humans. Barnards star is a star in the constellation Ophiuchus which is notable for having the largest proper motion (10. ... Major features of the Solar System (not to scale): The Sun, the eight planets, the asteroid belt containing the dwarf planet Ceres, outermost there is the dwarf planet Pluto (the dwarf planet Eris not shown), and a comet. ...

In this novel, renegade Purple pretenders ally themselves with the Medusae as a means to regain their empire. But the Medusae, who are totally unlike humans in all ways, turn on the Purples, seeking to destroy all humans and move to the Solar System, as their own world, far older than Earth, is finally spiraling back into Barnard's Star. One of the Purples, John Ulnar, supports the Legion from the start, and he is the fourth great warrior. His enemy is the Purple pretender Eric Ulnar, who sought the Medusae out in the first place, seeking to become the next Emperor of The Sun. Barnards star is a star in the constellation Ophiuchus which is notable for having the largest proper motion (10. ...

The Medusae conquered the Moon, set up their bases there, and went on to attempt conquest of the Solar System. The Medusae had for eons used a greenish, artificial greenhouse gas to keep their dying world from freezing. The Medusae learned from the first human expedition to their world that the gas rots human flesh, and the Medusae use it as a potent chemical weapon, attempting ecological destruction by means of projectiles fired from the Moon. Their vast spaceships also have very effective plasma weapons, very similar to those the Romulans had in a Star Trek episode called Balance of Terror. Top: Increasing atmospheric CO2 levels as measured in the atmosphere and ice cores. ... Introduction The Romulans, a fictional race in the Star Trek universe, are descended from Vulcans and are characterized as being deceitful, cunning, and treacherous. ... The phrase balance of terror is usually used in reference to the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during Cold War. ...

The Legion works also featured a force field called AKKA which can erase from the Universe any matter, of any size, anywhere, even a star or a planet. AKKA was a weapon of mass destruction and the secret of it was entrusted to a series of women. AKKA was used in the past to overthrow the Purple tyranny. It was also used to wipe out most of the Medusae, though they had tried to steal the secret. When they were wiped out, the Moon where they had established their base was erased out of existence. At the end of the story, John Ulnar falls in love with the keeper of AKKA, Aladoree Anthar, and marries her. Aladoree Anthar is described as a young, blonde woman, beautiful as a goddess. Image of a woman on the Pioneer plaque sent to outer space. ... Bulk composition of the Moons mantle and crust estimated, weight percent Oxygen 42. ... Statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of the agriculture A goddess is a female deity, in contrast with a male deity known as a god. Many cultures have goddesses, sometimes alone, but more often as part of a larger pantheon that includes both the conventional genders and in some cases...

Williamson then wrote The Cometeers which takes place twenty years after the Legion of Space in which the same characters battle another alien race, this one of different origin.

In this second tale, they fight The Cometeers who are an alien race of energy beings controlling a "comet" which is really a giant force field containing a swarm of planets populated by their slaves. The slave races are of flesh and blood, but none are remotely similar to humans. The Cometeers cannot be destroyed by AKKA as they are incorporeal from the Universe's point of view and exist for the most part in an alternate reality. The ruling Cometeers feed on their slaves and literally absorb their souls, leaving disgusting, dying hulks in their wake. It is said that they do so as they were once fleshly entities themselves of various species. Hence the ruling Cometeers keep other intelligent beings as slaves and "cattle." They fear AKKA though as it can erase all their possessions. Wiktionary has related dictionary definitions, such as: slave Slave may refer to: Slavery, where people are owned by others, and live to serve their owners without pay Slave (BDSM), a form of sexual and consenual submission Slave clock, in technology, a clock or timer that synchrnonizes to a master clock...

They are defeated by the skills of Giles Habibula. Giles broke into a secret chamber guarded by complex locks and force fields that the incorporeal Cometeers could not penetrate. In it the ruler of the Cometeers had kept its own weapon of mass destruction, one that would cause the Cometeers to disintegrate. The ruling Cometeer kept this weapon to enforce its rule over the others of its kind. One the Cometeers were destroyed, their slaves were ordered by the Legion to take the comet and leave the Solar System, and never return.

Another novel, One Against the Legion tells of a Purple pretender who sets up a robotic base on a world over seventy light years from Earth, and tries to conquer the Solar System via matter transporter technology he has stolen. In this story robots are outlawed as they are in Dune. The story also features Jay Kalam lobbying to allow the New Cometeers to leave the Solar System in peace, as many people were demanding that AKKA be used to obliterate the departing swarm of planets once and for all. ASIMO, a humanoid robot manufactured by Honda. ... The fictional Dune universe, or Duniverse is the political, scientific, and social setting of author Frank Herberts six-book Dune series of science-fiction novels. ...

In 1982, he published a final Legion novel, The Queen of the Legion. Giles Habibula reappears in this final novel, which is set after the disbanding of the Legion.

Contraterrene

An editor suggested that Williamson combine the ideas of contraterrene matter (antimatter) and asteroid mining. This brought about the Seetee (C-T) series of short stories. In particle physics, antimatter extends the concept of the antiparticle to matter, wherein if a particle and its antiparticle come into contact with each other, the two annihilate —that is, they may both be converted into other particles with equal energy in accordance with Einsteins equation E = mc2. ...

Other media

An unfavorable review of one of his books, which compared his 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 (1952-55), until the paper dropped all comics.

Stories

His Legion of Time (1938) was the first story to feature alternative future civilizations sending agents back to the present day, to fight over actions that will decide their future existence. As such, it is a precursor to the Terminator series of films. Despite the word 'Legion' in the title, this story is not part of the Legion of Space series but an independent work. The word terminator is from Latin and means roughly the finisher. ...

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.

Bibliography

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
• Legion of Space Series:
  • The Legion of Space, 1934
  • The Cometeers, 1936
  • One Against the Legion, 1939
  • Three from the Legion, (Omnibus) 1980
  • The Queen of the Legion, 1982
• Xandulu, 1934
• The Blue Spot, 1935
• Islands of the Sun, 1935
• Legion of Time Series]]:
  • The Legion of Time, 1938
  • After World's End, 1939
• The Fortress of Utopia, 1939
• Realm of Wizardry, 1940
• Humanoids Series:
  • With Folded Hands, 1947
  • The Humanoids, 1949
  • The Humanoids / With Folded Hands (Omnibus) (2002)
  • The Humanoid Touch, 1980
• Darker Than You Think, 1948
• Seetee Shock, 1949
• Seetee Ship, 1950
• Dragon's Island (aka The Not-Men), 1951
• Undersea Trilogy (with Frederik Pohl):
  • Undersea Quest (1954)
  • Undersea Fleet (1956)
  • Undersea City (1958)
• 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
• Starchild Trilogy (with Frederik Pohl):
  • The Reefs of Space (1964)
  • Starchild (1965)
  • Rogue Star (1969)
• Bright New Universe, 1967
• Trapped in Space, 1968
• Jamboree, 1969
• The Moon Children, 1972
• The Power of Blackness, 1975
• Saga of Cuckoo (with Frederik Pohl):
  • Wall Around A Star (1975)
  • Farthest Star (1983) [prequel]
• 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)
• 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

Miles J. Breuer, (1889 – 1947) a U.S. doctor by trade, is better known to science fiction aficionadoes as a writer for many pulp magazines, including Amazing Stories and Argosy. ... The Humanoid Touch is a science fiction novel written by Jack Williamson. ... Cover sample of Undersea Quest Book 1 in the Series. ... Frederik Pohl (born November 26, 1919) is a noted American science fiction writer and editor, with a career spanning over sixty years. ... The Starchild Trilogy was a series of three books written by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson. ... Frederik Pohl (born November 26, 1919) is a noted American science fiction writer and editor, with a career spanning over sixty years. ... Consists of two novels by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson. ... Frederik Pohl (born November 26, 1919) is a noted American science fiction writer and editor, with a career spanning over sixty years. ... Author: Frederik Pohl, in collaboration with Jack Williamson Cover Art: David Mattingly The second book of the Saga of Cuckoo Series, the first was called Farthest Star. ... Frederik Pohl (born November 26, 1919) is a noted American science fiction writer and editor, with a career spanning over sixty years. ... Frederik Pohl (born November 26, 1919) is a noted American science fiction writer and editor, with a career spanning over sixty years. ... Frederik Pohl (born November 26, 1919) is a noted American science fiction writer and editor, with a career spanning over sixty years. ...

Autobiography

Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction. Bluejay Books, New York, 1984.

See also

• Terraforming

Artists conception of a terraformed Mars in four stages of development. ...

External links

• A bibliography
• Scifi.com interview
• John Clute 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
• Sci-fi legend Williamson dies

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database is a database of bibliographic information on science fiction and related genres such as fantasy fiction and horror fiction. ...

Notes

References

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