| RIP Harry Harrisn {Soylent Green author] [message #14196] |
Wed, 15 August 2012 20:07  |
BillV2320
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Harry Harrison, writer whose book became Soylent Green, dies at 87
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Harry Maxwell Harrison, the science fiction author best known as the
author of the 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room!, which was made into the
1973 film Soylent Green, passed away at age 87. Harrison also wrote many
other well-known science fiction novels in more than five decades as an
SF author, most notably in series such as The Stainless Steel Rat,
Deathworld and Bill, the Galactic Hero.
In addition to more than 50 novels, he wrote numerous shorter works,
collected in such volumes as The Best of Harry Harrison (1976) and 50 in
50 (2001), and edited more than 30 science fiction anthologies.
Harrison actually began his science fiction career as an illustrator,
including working on the classic EC Comics of the early 1950s (working
primarily with Wally Wood) and providing spot illustrations for science
fiction magazines such as Galaxy, and later writing the Flash Gordon
newspaper comic (working with Dan Barry). After serving in the military
in the 1940s, he had briefly attended art school, where he met a number
of prominent comics artists.
He had entered the world of science fiction as a teenaged fan in the
late 1930s, when he became one of the founders of the Queens chapter of
the Science Fiction League, a New York-based fan organization, and
contributed to fanzines of that period. Later he would become a member
of the Hydra Club along with other young science fiction professionals,
who included Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, Lester del Rey, L. Sprague
de Camp and Damon Knight.
He also began writing short science fiction stories in the 1950s, with
his first story, "Rock Diver," appearing in the August 1951 issue of the
science fiction magazine Worlds Beyond. He wrote and edited widely in
the 1950s, including for "true confessions" magazines. His first science
fiction novel was Deathworld (1960), set on a planet teeming with
dangerous predatory life forms, which was followed by two sequels. His
second novel, The Stainless Steel Rat (1961), began a light science
fiction adventure series that Harrison continued for 13 more novels over
the next 30 years. His satirical Bill, the Galactic Hero (1965) was
followed by a period of more ambitious novels on serious themes,
including Make Room! Make Room! (1966)â€"one of the finest novels on
the theme of overpopulationâ€" Captive Universe (1969) and In Our
Hands the Stars (1970). Make Room! Make Room! became the basis for the
popular science fiction movie Soylent Green in 1973.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Harrison also edited an impressive array of
anthologies, including many best-of-the-year anthologies, several
best-of-the-decade anthologies, and the short-lived but highly respected
Nova series of original anthologies. He also edited, with Brian Aldiss,
the ground-breaking nonfiction book Hell's Cartographers: Some Personal
Histories of Science Fiction Writers (1975).
In the 1980s, Harrison wrote a major new trilogy, set in an alternate
reality where intelligent dinosaurs evolved parallel to humans,
beginning with West of Eden (1984), and continuing with Winter in Eden
(1986) and Return to Eden (1988). In the 1990s, he wrote the fantasy
trilogy The Hammer and the Cross, followed by the alternate history
Stars and Stripes trilogy.
After moving from New York in the 1950s and living for periods in
Mexico, England, Italy, Denmark and San Diego, Harrison and his family
moved to Ireland in the mid-1970s, where he had lived since. He was
predeceased by his wife, Joan Merkler, in 2002, and is survived by two
children, son Todd and daughter Moira.
Harrison has won many awards and other honors in the field, including
the 1973 Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation for Soylent Green,
which also won a Golden Scroll Award and was nominated for the Hugo
Award in 1974, losing to Woody Allen's Sleeper. Two early novels were
nominated for Hugo Awards, Deathworld (1961) and Planet of the Damned
(1962), and his short story "By the Falls" was nominated for a Nebula
Award in 1971. He also won a Sidewise Award for Alternate History for
his Stars and Stripes trilogy.
He was inducted in 2004 into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of
Fame in Lawrence, Kan., and also won the Inkpot Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Science Fiction and Fantasy at Comic-Con International in
San Diego that same year. He became a European Grand Master in 2006, and
in 2009 he was presented the Damon Knight Science Fiction Grand Master
Award by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, perhaps the
greatest honor for any science fiction author.
(via harryharrison.com )
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                   /'_'/'   '/'__'7,
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WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU BLABBERING ABOUT, YOU MILKSOP?!?
SHORTBUS O'REETEE STICKLER.
BEWARE OF OL' JEEZL PETE.
2012: YEAR OF THE ROBBY.
SAY THEE NAY TO YAY.
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