I've known very few members of our species with the breadth and depth of mind and heart that this unique person brought to our planet, interested in absolutely everything, and completely unabashed. He was - in every positive sense - a leading citizen of our commonwealth of wonder.David's tenure as head of Timescape Books was a golden era in Science Fiction. His annual best-of series kept alive a spirited side to the genre, at a time when many others pushed dolorous tales of omphaloskepsis, ennui and despair. With his wife - Kathryn Cramer - David collated The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF and, more recently, The Hard SF Renaissance, volumes now taught widely in universities, standing up for the value of a literature focused on exploring processes of change, as well as tomorrow's undiscovered realm.
Hartwell was nominated for the Hugo Award forty-one times, nineteen in the category of Best Professional Editor and Best Editor Long Form, winning in 2006, 2008 and 2009, and twenty-two times as editor/publisher of The New York Review of Science Fiction. Hartwell was a Senior Editor at Tor Books, where he worked for over thirty years. "David Hartwell restored our faith in the power of science fiction," writes Charlie Jane Anders in a tribute on io9.
Often a visitor to our California home, here he is snapped visiting me and Professor Roger Berkowitz during my recent visiting position at Bard College. David and I had been working closely with Stephen Potts on an anthology of essays and stories about what civilization may become, when filled with transparency and light. Coincidentally given David's green light this very week - Chasing Shadows: Visions of our Coming Transparent World - may be one of his final books.
How I'd rather have collaborated many times more!
How I'd rather have collaborated many times more!
An unusual fellow who designed his own life path. An original and almost the hardest working editor I ever knew, excluding only my Dad -- a fatherly role he played for many rising authors.
Above all, farewell my friend.
== Forgotten Science Fiction authors? ==
A fun little
conversation-starter? On Quora I was asked to name "forgotten" Sci Fi authors. Other respondents were citing Roger
Zelazny, L. Sprague de Camp, Ursula Le Guin, Lester del Rey,
A.E. VanVogt, Fritz Lieber, Clifford Simak, Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon. Well,
of course Zelazny and Farmer and Ursula and those others should never be forgotten. But would any reasonably well-read person say
they are? Or Walter Miller or Iain Banks? No, not yet on any such list! And I hope never.
== And Finally... ==
Explore the history of Science Fiction with the just-released Science Fiction Trading Cards, from Walter Day, featuring authors such as H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Aldous Huxley, Samuel Delaney, Nancy Kress, and Gregory Benford.
Oh, and Ariel Waldman's fun new book - What's It Like in Space? Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There - features 60 short vignettes by astronauts (past & present) about weird, unusual, embarrassing, funny and awe-inspiring moments in space.
A fun little
conversation-starter? On Quora I was asked to name "forgotten" Sci Fi authors. Other respondents were citing Roger
Zelazny, L. Sprague de Camp, Ursula Le Guin, Lester del Rey,
A.E. VanVogt, Fritz Lieber, Clifford Simak, Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon. Well,
of course Zelazny and Farmer and Ursula and those others should never be forgotten. But would any reasonably well-read person say
they are? Or Walter Miller or Iain Banks? No, not yet on any such list! And I hope never.
For my own answer I dug deeper. From Robert Sheckley and Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree Jr.), William Tenn and the zany-brilliant Avram Davidson -- among the greatest of all short
story writers -- all the way to lamented classics like John Boyd's "The Last Starship From Earth."
If you like adventure, then H. Beam Piper and William Burkett. Andre Norton!!! Richard C. Meredith!! Keith Laumer, Erik Frank Russell and Christopher Anvil and Gordon Dickson. Frederick Brown. Bob Shaw.
Thoughtful explorers: Philip Wylie. Charles Sheffield. James Blish! Murray Leinster and John Varley. Anthony Boucher. And likewise the marvelously unique-voiced R. A. Lafferty and Cordwainer Smith. Panshen and Pangborn and Biggle and Kuttner, Wolfe and Gunn. Zenna Henderson and Randall Garrett. Jack Vance for plausible fantasy (and Marian Zimmer Bradley and Michael Moorcock - though never quite my cuppatea). Lest we forget Weinbaum, White and Stewart. And Hal Clement for the really sciencey-sciencey stuff, long before The Martian.
Oh, there are bigger names who we should keep refreshing so any danger of faulty memory is swiftly canceled. Fred Pohl is not forgotten but he was the greatest true-idea-explorer SF author and
Poul Anderson was the best, purest storyteller. (Just sayin'.) Bob Silverberg could rouse any soul, as does Nan Kress. And Joanna Russ slapped us awake, as did Harlan Ellison and Chip Delany and Thomas Disch and Fritz Leiber. A.E. Van Vogt was (philosophically) the L. Ron Hubbard of Sci Fi authors who could write - still I liked the Rull series (just beware of his Cardian tendency to worship demigods). Phil Dick will keep getting movies, so no worries there. And dear Anne McCaffrey will get her dragons onscreen. So let's get back to names that are in danger.
Some younger ones who are fading from prominence way too soon. Octavia Butler is safely ensconced in university lit classes. Alas, the same cannot be said for Linda Nagata, Joan Sloncziewski, Catherine Asaro, Lisa Goldstein, K.W. Jeter, Donald Kingsbury, Lee Killough. ... but if we start down this road we will be up all night and I refer you below, to what will be a lively tsunami of suggestions by others, in the comments thread.
But oh, is it possible some young 'uns don't know Alfred Bester and John Brunner? Really? They scared the bejezus out of every other living SF author, for a decade each. Gotta watch out for them killer "B's".
Late adds: Stanislaw Lem and the Strugatsky brothers. And yes, my list was anglophobic. Sorry. Look up Tetsu Yano. For starters. Another all-nighter, but suggestions welcome.
One of you chimed in with Burgess, Goulart, Chandler, Budrys & Ballard. Simak & Knight. Forehead smack! Another of you: Alan E. Nourse, Brian Aldiss, Olaf Stapledon, E.E. 'Doc' Smith, James Inglis, Fred Hoyle. Absolutely! Except… James Inglis? Let me chime in Kate Wilhelm, Ben Bova and Charles L. Harness.
Dang there's bunches of us sci fi authors, after all. Will the youngest of you put me on such a list, someday?
And now – on NPR’s site – Jason Sheehan reviews Harlan Ellison’s latest short story collection, Can & Can'tankerous, calling Harlan:
“…America's weird uncle. He's the angry, elderly cousin at the table — the one who, for weeks before dinner, everyone asks about. Is he coming this year? Is Harlan gonna be there? They ask because they're worried; Harlan is always starting something. But they'd also be sad if he wasn't there.”
How interesting. Not science fiction's weird uncle but America's. Perhaps, indeed, we are rounding a corner.
Press and culture attention is swinging to Hard SF as in this NPR piece: "It is very well documented that people who work for NASA have been inspired by science fiction," says Calla Cofield of Space.com. "And there's always a back-and-forth, you know, between science fiction and reality. All of this is about dreaming about what's going on off the surface of the Earth."
And science fiction appeared on President Obama's vacation reading list...with a novel that I highly recommend, The Three Body Problem, by Liu Cixin, translated brilliantly by Ken Liu. (With my name conveniently right there - if appropriately in small letters (!) - on the cover.)
If you like adventure, then H. Beam Piper and William Burkett. Andre Norton!!! Richard C. Meredith!! Keith Laumer, Erik Frank Russell and Christopher Anvil and Gordon Dickson. Frederick Brown. Bob Shaw.
Thoughtful explorers: Philip Wylie. Charles Sheffield. James Blish! Murray Leinster and John Varley. Anthony Boucher. And likewise the marvelously unique-voiced R. A. Lafferty and Cordwainer Smith. Panshen and Pangborn and Biggle and Kuttner, Wolfe and Gunn. Zenna Henderson and Randall Garrett. Jack Vance for plausible fantasy (and Marian Zimmer Bradley and Michael Moorcock - though never quite my cuppatea). Lest we forget Weinbaum, White and Stewart. And Hal Clement for the really sciencey-sciencey stuff, long before The Martian.
Oh, there are bigger names who we should keep refreshing so any danger of faulty memory is swiftly canceled. Fred Pohl is not forgotten but he was the greatest true-idea-explorer SF author and
Poul Anderson was the best, purest storyteller. (Just sayin'.) Bob Silverberg could rouse any soul, as does Nan Kress. And Joanna Russ slapped us awake, as did Harlan Ellison and Chip Delany and Thomas Disch and Fritz Leiber. A.E. Van Vogt was (philosophically) the L. Ron Hubbard of Sci Fi authors who could write - still I liked the Rull series (just beware of his Cardian tendency to worship demigods). Phil Dick will keep getting movies, so no worries there. And dear Anne McCaffrey will get her dragons onscreen. So let's get back to names that are in danger.Some younger ones who are fading from prominence way too soon. Octavia Butler is safely ensconced in university lit classes. Alas, the same cannot be said for Linda Nagata, Joan Sloncziewski, Catherine Asaro, Lisa Goldstein, K.W. Jeter, Donald Kingsbury, Lee Killough. ... but if we start down this road we will be up all night and I refer you below, to what will be a lively tsunami of suggestions by others, in the comments thread.
But oh, is it possible some young 'uns don't know Alfred Bester and John Brunner? Really? They scared the bejezus out of every other living SF author, for a decade each. Gotta watch out for them killer "B's".Late adds: Stanislaw Lem and the Strugatsky brothers. And yes, my list was anglophobic. Sorry. Look up Tetsu Yano. For starters. Another all-nighter, but suggestions welcome.
One of you chimed in with Burgess, Goulart, Chandler, Budrys & Ballard. Simak & Knight. Forehead smack! Another of you: Alan E. Nourse, Brian Aldiss, Olaf Stapledon, E.E. 'Doc' Smith, James Inglis, Fred Hoyle. Absolutely! Except… James Inglis? Let me chime in Kate Wilhelm, Ben Bova and Charles L. Harness.
Dang there's bunches of us sci fi authors, after all. Will the youngest of you put me on such a list, someday?
== Elsewhere in Science Fiction ==
Is Science Fiction emerging from the ghetto? In recent years, Harpers, The New Yorker and Atlantic – who used to cyclically do loathsome hit-pieces against SF, frantically libeling our field every few years – have instead run laudatory and friendly appraisals, as a new generation, less prissy and more open to a universe of ideas, appears to be stepping up, taking over the New York salons.
Is Science Fiction emerging from the ghetto? In recent years, Harpers, The New Yorker and Atlantic – who used to cyclically do loathsome hit-pieces against SF, frantically libeling our field every few years – have instead run laudatory and friendly appraisals, as a new generation, less prissy and more open to a universe of ideas, appears to be stepping up, taking over the New York salons.
And now – on NPR’s site – Jason Sheehan reviews Harlan Ellison’s latest short story collection, Can & Can'tankerous, calling Harlan: “…America's weird uncle. He's the angry, elderly cousin at the table — the one who, for weeks before dinner, everyone asks about. Is he coming this year? Is Harlan gonna be there? They ask because they're worried; Harlan is always starting something. But they'd also be sad if he wasn't there.”
How interesting. Not science fiction's weird uncle but America's. Perhaps, indeed, we are rounding a corner.
Press and culture attention is swinging to Hard SF as in this NPR piece: "It is very well documented that people who work for NASA have been inspired by science fiction," says Calla Cofield of Space.com. "And there's always a back-and-forth, you know, between science fiction and reality. All of this is about dreaming about what's going on off the surface of the Earth."
And science fiction appeared on President Obama's vacation reading list...with a novel that I highly recommend, The Three Body Problem, by Liu Cixin, translated brilliantly by Ken Liu. (With my name conveniently right there - if appropriately in small letters (!) - on the cover.)
== And Finally... ==Explore the history of Science Fiction with the just-released Science Fiction Trading Cards, from Walter Day, featuring authors such as H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Aldous Huxley, Samuel Delaney, Nancy Kress, and Gregory Benford.
Oh, and Ariel Waldman's fun new book - What's It Like in Space? Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There - features 60 short vignettes by astronauts (past & present) about weird, unusual, embarrassing, funny and awe-inspiring moments in space.
