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Jun. 21st, 2010 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
supergeeMy review of a new bio of one of my favorite writers, Eric Frank Russell:
I am not one of those who want science fiction taken out of the classroom and put back in the gutter "where it belongs." Quite the contrary; I for one welcome our new academicoverlords scholars. In particular, I encourage those who are battling the encroachments of time to rescue the lives and works of sf writers who go back to the days of First SF and its immediate successors, Galaxy Suburban and New Wave, which are still my favorites anyway.
The first half of a new Robert A. Heinlein bio is about to appear, and I imagine there will be similar works about Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, but I hope we do not forget those a step behind, perhaps petit rather than grand masters. One such is Eric Frank Russell, who did not crash galaxies together, offer bold new scientific speculations, or lead us through pulse-pounding adventures, but presented human-interest stories that may wear better. He is a particularly obvious exception to the statement in the recent New York Times obit of William Tenn that the field was grim and humorless before Tenn came along. He is widely believed to have invented "the ancient Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times," though the evidence is inconclusive. (No one has found an actual Chinese curse to that effect.) His best-known work is probably "And Then There Were None," in which ornery but cooperative individualists manage to create a working anarchy. There are tales where the Earthlings bamboozle the natives, and ones where, as a Russell character puts it, "intelligence is like candy: it comes in many different sizes, shapes, and colors, but all are delicious." He has enriched the vocabulary of the sf community with phrases like the "basic right" (to go to Hell in one's own way).
Like many other writers of his time, he has been served well by NESFA Press, with collections of his short fiction (Major Ingredients) and of his better novels (Entities), and now we have a much-needed biography, Into Your Tent, by John L. Ingham ($18.00/#9.99 from Plantech (UK), PO Box 2104, Reading RG1 5WG, United Kingdom, e-mail: PlantecUK@aol.com). It is an admirably detailed work, with much about Russell's family background, his nonwriting life, and perhaps of most interest to many of us, his dealings with John W. Campbell and other editors. Russell turns out to be somewhat like his cantankerous characters (perhaps a bit more so, which is unsurprising given the vocabulary restrictions then placed on the public media). He would not have liked the present work, believing that writers' lives in general and his in particular were none of anybody else's business, but (do I mean because?) it gives us a thorough, well-drawn picture of him.
The book could have been better. It is self-published or small press, and one occasionally yearns for the cold formalities of professional publication. The cover blurb not unreasonably describes Russell as one of Britain's science fiction greats, but puts the word greats in quotation marks. The book could have done with some prose pruning and the elimination of annoying idiosyncrasies, such as parenthetical explanations of words that might be considered difficult (e.g., incongruous). Nevertheless, this is a valuable, irreplaceable study of one of the fascinating figures of our field.
I am not one of those who want science fiction taken out of the classroom and put back in the gutter "where it belongs." Quite the contrary; I for one welcome our new academic
The first half of a new Robert A. Heinlein bio is about to appear, and I imagine there will be similar works about Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, but I hope we do not forget those a step behind, perhaps petit rather than grand masters. One such is Eric Frank Russell, who did not crash galaxies together, offer bold new scientific speculations, or lead us through pulse-pounding adventures, but presented human-interest stories that may wear better. He is a particularly obvious exception to the statement in the recent New York Times obit of William Tenn that the field was grim and humorless before Tenn came along. He is widely believed to have invented "the ancient Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times," though the evidence is inconclusive. (No one has found an actual Chinese curse to that effect.) His best-known work is probably "And Then There Were None," in which ornery but cooperative individualists manage to create a working anarchy. There are tales where the Earthlings bamboozle the natives, and ones where, as a Russell character puts it, "intelligence is like candy: it comes in many different sizes, shapes, and colors, but all are delicious." He has enriched the vocabulary of the sf community with phrases like the "basic right" (to go to Hell in one's own way).
Like many other writers of his time, he has been served well by NESFA Press, with collections of his short fiction (Major Ingredients) and of his better novels (Entities), and now we have a much-needed biography, Into Your Tent, by John L. Ingham ($18.00/#9.99 from Plantech (UK), PO Box 2104, Reading RG1 5WG, United Kingdom, e-mail: PlantecUK@aol.com). It is an admirably detailed work, with much about Russell's family background, his nonwriting life, and perhaps of most interest to many of us, his dealings with John W. Campbell and other editors. Russell turns out to be somewhat like his cantankerous characters (perhaps a bit more so, which is unsurprising given the vocabulary restrictions then placed on the public media). He would not have liked the present work, believing that writers' lives in general and his in particular were none of anybody else's business, but (do I mean because?) it gives us a thorough, well-drawn picture of him.
The book could have been better. It is self-published or small press, and one occasionally yearns for the cold formalities of professional publication. The cover blurb not unreasonably describes Russell as one of Britain's science fiction greats, but puts the word greats in quotation marks. The book could have done with some prose pruning and the elimination of annoying idiosyncrasies, such as parenthetical explanations of words that might be considered difficult (e.g., incongruous). Nevertheless, this is a valuable, irreplaceable study of one of the fascinating figures of our field.
