Search - List of Books by James Gunn
"In hard-core science fiction in which characters are responding to a change in environment, caused by nature or the universe or technology, what readers want to see is how people cope, and so the character are present to cope, or fail to cope." -- James Gunn
James Edwin Gunn (born 1923 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American science fiction author, editor, scholar, and anthologist. His work from the 1960s and 70s is considered his most significant fiction, and his Road to Science Fiction collections are considered his most important scholarly books. He won a Hugo Award for a non-fiction book in 1983 for Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction. He has been named the 2007 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
"I could give you some names of Workshop participants who are as good as many who are being published but haven't had the right editor recognize their merit or have not been adequately published.""I don't know if there is any one secret to successful writing, but one important step is to move beyond imitation and discover what you can write that no one else can - that is, find out who you are and write that in an appropriate narrative and style.""I hope I'm still alive to see an expedition set off for Mars.""I prefer to bring these to the service of story rather than to let them replace narrative.""It also is true that some ideas naturally work themselves out over a longer period of time than a single human life can encompass.""One should be willing to throw away a dozen ideas to come up with a good one, just as one should throw away a dozen words to come up with the right one.""That certainly is one approach to take. My own is to acknowledge the inner child and try to work with my first fascination with science fiction. I have tried to build on its idea content and narrative drive rather than to discard them."
Gunn served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, after which he attended the University of Kansas, earning a Bachelor of Science in Journalism in 1947 and a Masters of Arts in English in 1951. Gunn went on to become a faculty member of the University of Kansas, where he served as the university's director of public relations and as a professor of English, specializing in science fiction and fiction writing. He is now a professor emeritus and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, which awards the annual John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award at the Campbell Conference in Lawrence, Kansas, every July.
He served as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1971—72 and was President of the Science Fiction Research Association from 1980-82. SFWA honored him as a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 2007.
Gunn began his career as a science fiction author in 1948. He has had almost 100 stories published in magazines and anthologies and has authored 26 books and edited 10. Many of his stories and books have been reprinted around the world.
In 1996, Gunn wrote a novelization of the unproduced Star Trek episode "The Joy Machine" by Theodore Sturgeon.
His stories also have been adapted into radioplays and teleplays:
- NBC radio's X Minus One
- Desilu Playhouse's 1959 "Man in Orbit", based on Gunn's "The Cave of Night"
- ABC-TV's Movie of the Week "The Immortal" (1969) and an hour-long television series in 1970, based on Gunn's The Immortals
- An episode of the USSR science fiction TV series This Fantastic World, filmed in 1989 and entitled "Psychodynamics of the Witchcraft" was based on James Gunn's 1953 story "Wherever You May Be".
Fiction
- This Fortress World (1955)
- Star Bridge (with Jack Williamson, 1955)
- Station in Space (stories, 1958)
- The Joy Makers (1961)
- The Immortals (1964)
- Future Imperfect (stories, 1964)
- The Witching Hour (stories, 1970)
- The Listeners (1972)
- The Burning (1972)
- Some Dreams Are Nightmares (stories, 1974)
- The End of the Dreams (stories, 1975)
- The Magicians (1976)
- Kampus (1977)
- The Dreamers (1981)
- Crisis! (1986)
- Gift from the Stars (2005)
Nonfiction
- Alternate worlds: the illustrated history of science fiction (1975) Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-89104-049-8
- The Foundations of Science Fiction (1982), Scarecrow Press, 2nd ed (1996) ISBN 0-8108-3129-5
- Inside Science Fiction (2006), Scarecrow Press
Anthologies include
The Road to Science Fiction (now a total of 6 volumes, from 1977 to 1998).
- 1976 Science Fiction Research Association Pilgrim Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction scholarship
- 1976 World Science Fiction Convention Special Award for Alternate Worlds
- 1983 Hugo Award for Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction
- 1992 Eaton Award for lifetime achievement
- 2007 Nebula Awards Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction
James E. Gunn (2004) The Listeners, BenBella Books, ISBN 1-932100-12-1 (Carl Sagan stated about The Listeners: "One of the very best fictional portrayals of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence ever written.")
