The Dean

He is the unquestioned Dean of Science Fiction. He doesn’t just know the history of the field; he is the living history of science fiction.

He’s Jack Williamson, of course.

When Hugo Gernsback created the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, back in 1926, he filled it by reprinting H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. But sooner or later he had to have new material if the magazine was to survive, and this Williamson kid was just the ticket. Jack’s “The Metal Man” appeared in the December, 1928 issue, and his career was off and running. 77 years later it hasn’t appreciably slowed down.

Jack was there when Gernsback lost control of Amazing and started all the Wonders—Wonder Stories, Air Wonder Stories, and Science Wonder Stories. He was there when the much-loved but destitute Weird Tales finally got a budget. He was there for Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories and Marvel Science Stories and Future and all the other pulps. And he was there as a mainstay of the two major magazines that truly shaped the field, Astounding and Unknown.

When the book publishers finally discovered us, Jack was there with novels for Fantasy Press and Gnome Press. When New York decided we weren’t an overnight sensation (it only took them a quarter of a century to come to that conclusion), Jack sold to Simon & Schuster and Doubleday. When the mass market paperback companies began building their lines, Jack was there, selling to Ace and Avon and Lancer and Berkley and all the rest.

Jack’s career pre-dates the Hugo Awards by 25 years, but that didn’t stop him from winning them. The original version of the book you are holding in your hands won a Hugo for Best Related (i.e., non-fiction) Book, and at the ripe young age of 93 Jack won a Hugo for Best Novella.

Jack pre-dates the Science Fiction Writers of America (which he served with distinction as its President) by 37 years—but that didn’t stop him from being given SFWA’s Grandmaster award, the second writer (behind Robert A. Heinlein) ever to receive the lifetime commendation.

Not a paltry list of accomplishments, you’ll have to admit. And the reason I’m dwelling on them, rather than on the remarkable man who achieved them, is because you’re about to meet him in the pages up again, and he present himself more honestly and forthrightly than anyone else can. A lot of science fiction writers have written their autobiographies, which are usually just expanded versions of “…and then I wrote…and then I sold…”

Maybe that’s why Jack’s was the first to win a Hugo Award. It is a true autobiography, and when you’re finished you’ll know at least as much about this fascinating and beloved man as you do about his bibliography.