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Alfred Elton van Vogt
Born April 26, 1912(1912-04-26)
Gretna, Manitoba, Canada
Died January 26, 2000 (aged 87)
Los Angeles, USA
Pen name A. Events 1467 - The miraculous image in Our Lady of Good Counsel appear in Genazzano, Italy. Year 1912 ( MCMXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting Once home to roaming Buffalo herds the area around Gretna attracted people as far back as the early 1800's Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Events 1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a Pseudonym adopted by an Author or their publishers to conceal their identity E. van Vogt
Occupation novelist, short story writer
Nationality Canada
Genres Science Fiction
Literary movement Golden Age of Science Fiction
Spouse(s) Edna Mayne Hull (1939-1975)
Lydia van Vogt

Alfred Elton van Vogt (April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born science fiction author who was one of the most prolific and complex writers of the mid-twentieth century "Golden Age" of the genre. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such Nationality is a relationship between a Person and their State of Origin, Culture, association Affiliation and/or Loyalty Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction This is a list of modern literary movements: that is movements after the Renaissance. The first Golden Age of Science Fiction, often recognized as a period from the late 1930s or early 1940s through to the 1950s was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide Edna Mayne Hull ( May 1, 1905, Brandon Manitoba - January 20, 1975) was a Science fiction Writer who published Events 1467 - The miraculous image in Our Lady of Good Counsel appear in Genazzano, Italy. Year 1912 ( MCMXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting Events 1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Note that this Partial list contains some authors whose works of fantastic fiction would today be called science fiction even if they predate or did not work in that genre The first Golden Age of Science Fiction, often recognized as a period from the late 1930s or early 1940s through to the 1950s was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide

Contents

Science Fiction's Golden Age

Born on a farm in Edenburg, a Russian Mennonite community east of Gretna, Manitoba, Canada, van Vogt is one of the most popular and highly esteemed writers of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. The Russian Mennonites are a group of Mennonites descended from Dutch and mainly Germanic Prussian Anabaptists who established colonies in South Once home to roaming Buffalo herds the area around Gretna attracted people as far back as the early 1800's Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The first Golden Age of Science Fiction, often recognized as a period from the late 1930s or early 1940s through to the 1950s was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide After starting his writing career by writing for 'true confession' style pulp magazines like True Story, van Vogt decided to switch to writing something he enjoyed, science fiction. Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as "the pulps" were inexpensive Fiction magazines

Van Vogt's first published SF story, "Black Destroyer" (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939), was inspired by On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American Science fiction Magazine. Charles Darwin 's On the Origin of Species (published 24 November 1859) is a seminal work in Scientific literature and arguably the Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life The story depicted a fierce, carnivorous alien stalking the crew of an exploration spaceship. Extraterrestrial life is Life originating outside of the Earth. It was the cover story of this issue of Astounding, the issue often described as having ushered in the Golden Age of science fiction[1]. The story became an instant classic and eventually served as the inspiration for a number of science fiction movies. In 1950 it was combined with "War of Nerves" (1950), "Discord in Scarlet" (1939) and "M33 in Andromeda" (1943) to form the novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950). The Voyage of the Space Beagle ( 1950, Canada is a classic novel of Science fiction by A

In 1941 van Vogt decided to become a full time writer, quitting his job at the Canadian Department of National Defence. Extremely prolific for a few years, van Vogt wrote a large number of short stories. The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such In the 1950s, many of them were retrospectively patched together into novels, or "fixups" as he called them, a term which entered the vocabulary of science fiction criticism. A fix-up (or fixup) is a Novel created from short stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published Sometimes this was successful (The War against the Rull) while other times the disparate stories thrown together made for a less coherent plot (Quest for the Future).

One of van Vogt's best-known novels of this period is Slan, which was originally serialised in Astounding Science Fiction (September - December 1940). Slan is also the name of a character in Berserk (manga; for the Irish phrase see Slán Abhaile Slan is a Science Using what became one of van Vogt's recurring themes, it told the story of a 9-year-old superman living in a world in which his kind are slain by Homo sapiens. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus

A sequel, Slan Hunter, was prepared by his widow, Lydia van Vogt, and Kevin J. Anderson, starting from an incomplete draft and outline left by the late van Vogt. Kevin J Anderson (born March 27, 1962) is an American Science fiction Author. It was released July 10, 2007 (ISBN 978-0765316752). Events 48 BC - Battle of Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Lydia van Vogt had already given permission to publish her introduction online.

Post-war philosophy

The April 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, containing the first appearance of The Wizard of Linn; which eventually appeared in book form from Ace Books in 1962.
The April 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, containing the first appearance of The Wizard of Linn; which eventually appeared in book form from Ace Books in 1962. Ace Books is the oldest active specialty Publisher of Science fiction and Fantasy books

In 1944, van Vogt moved to Hollywood, California, where his writing took on new dimensions after World War II. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Van Vogt was always interested in the idea of all-encompassing systems of knowledge (akin to modern meta-systems), the characters in his very first story used a system called 'Nexialism' to analyze the alien's behaviour, and he became interested in the General Semantics of Alfred Korzybski. Meta-systems have several definitions In general they link the concepts " System " and " Meta- " Connectivism (or Nexialism, or even Nextialism) is a cultural movement risen at the beginning of the 21st century in Italy, where is known as Connettivismo The term General Semantics refers to a non- Aristotelian Educational Discipline created by Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950 during the years Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (kɔ'ʐɨpski ( July 3, 1879 &ndash March 1, 1950) was a Polish-American Philosopher He was also profoundly affected by revelations of totalitarian police states that emerged after World War II. Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe Political systems where a State regulates nearly every aspect of public and private The term police state describes a State in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social economic and political World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including He wrote a mainstream novel that was set in Communist China, The Violent Man (1962); he said that to research this book he had read 100 books about China. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES

He subsequently wrote three novels merging these overarching themes, The World of Null-A and The Pawns of Null-A in the late 1940s, and Null-A Three in the early 1980s. The World of Null-A, usually written The World of Ā, is a 1948 Science fiction novel by A The Players of Null-A, usually written The Players of Ā, is a 1956 science fiction novel by A Null-A Three, usually written Ā Three, is a 1985 Science fiction novel by A Null-A, or non-Aristotelian logic, refers to the capacity for, and practice of, using intuitive, inductive reasoning (compare fuzzy logic), rather than reflexive, or conditioned, deductive logic. The term non-Aristotelian logic, sometimes shortened to null-A, means any non-classical system of logic which rejects one of Aristotle's premises. Fuzzy logic is a form of Multi-valued logic derived from Fuzzy set theory to deal with Reasoning that is approximate rather than precise

Van Vogt systematized his writing method, using scenes of 800 words or so where a new complication was added or something resolved. Several of his stories hinge upon temporal conundra, a favorite theme. He stated that he acquired many of his writing techniques from three books, "Narrative Technique" by Thomas Uzzell, and "The Only Two Ways to Write a Story" plus "Twenty Problems of the Short-Story Writer", both by John Gallishaw. John Gallishaw ( St John's Newfoundland and Labrador, 1890 - 1968 was a Canadian author and teacher [2]

He said many of his ideas came from dreams, and indeed his stories at times had the incoherence of dreams, but at their best, as in the science fantasy novel The Book of Ptath, his works had all the vision and power a dream can impart. The Book of Ptath is a Science fiction novel by author A E van Vogt. Throughout his writing life he arranged to be awakened every 90 minutes during his sleep period so he could write down his dreams. [3]

In the 1950s, van Vogt briefly became involved in L. Ron Hubbard's projects. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13 1911 &ndash January 24 1986 was a fiction writer who devised a self-help technique called Dianetics and philosophy known as Scientology Van Vogt operated a storefront for Dianetics, the secular precursor to Hubbard's Church of Scientology, in the Los Angeles area for a time, before winding up at odds with Hubbard and his methods. Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the relationship between the spirit mind and body that were developed by L Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices initially created by American Science fiction author L Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West His writing more or less stopped for some years, a period in which he bitterly claimed to have been harassed and intimidated by Hubbard's followers. In this period he was limited to collecting old short stories to form notable fixups like: The Mixed Men (1952), The War Against the Rull (1959), The Beast (1963) and the two novels of the "Linn" cyle, which were inspired (like Asimov's Foundation series) by the fall of the Roman Empire. A fix-up (or fixup) is a Novel created from short stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published The Mixed Men is a collection of Science fiction stories by author A Isaac Asimov (c January 2 1920 &ndash April 6 1992 ˈaɪzək ˈæzɪmʌv originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as, was a Russian The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial He resumed writing again in the 1960s, mainly at Frederik Pohl's invitation, while remaining in Hollywood with his second wife, Lydia Bereginsky, who cared for him through his declining years. Frederik George Pohl Jr (born November 26, 1919) is a American Science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career In this later period, his novels were conceived and written as unitary works. On January 26, 2000, van Vogt died in Los Angeles, USA from Alzheimer's disease. Events 1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Alzheimer's disease ( AD) also called Alzheimer disease or simply Alzheimer's, is the most common form of Dementia.

Recognition

In 1946, van Vogt and his first wife, Edna Mayne Hull, were co-Guests of Honor at the fourth World Science Fiction Convention. Edna Mayne Hull ( May 1, 1905, Brandon Manitoba - January 20, 1975) was a Science fiction Writer who published [4]

In 1980, van Vogt received a "Casper Award" (precursor to the Canadian Aurora Awards) for Lifetime Achievement. The Prix Aurora Awards are given out annually for the best Canadian Science fiction and Fantasy literary works Art Works and Awards for Fan Activities [5] In 1995 he was awarded the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America. The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is an Award given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Science Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA (ˈsɪfwə or /ˈsɛfwə/ was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight. In 1996, van Vogt was recognized on two occasions: the World Science Fiction Convention presented him with a Special Award for six decades of golden age science fiction, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame included him among its initial four inductees.

Critical praise

Fellow science fiction author Philip K. Dick has said that van Vogt's stories spurred his interest in science fiction with their strange sense of the unexplained, that something more was going on than the protagonists realized. Philip Kindred Dick (December 16 – March 2) was an American Science fiction Novelist and Short story Writer.

In a review of Transfinite: The Essential A. E. van Vogt, science fiction writer Paul Di Filippo said:

Van Vogt knew precisely what he was doing in all areas of his fiction writing. Paul Di Filippo (born October 29, 1954 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American Science fiction writer There's hardly a wasted word in his stories. . . His plots are marvels of interlocking pieces, often ending in real surprises and shocks, genuine paradigm shifts, which are among the hardest conceptions to depict. And the intellectual material of his fictions, the conceits and tossed-off observations on culture and human and alien behavior, reflect a probing mind. . . Each tale contains a new angle, a unique slant, that makes it stand out.
(DiFilippo, Paul, (2003) Off The Shelf, Retrieved 9 January 2003). Events 475 - Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

Criticism

Writer and critic Damon Knight wrote in 1945 that "van Vogt is not a giant as often maintained. Damon Francis Knight ( September 19, 1922 &ndash April 15, 2002) was an American Science fiction Author, He's only a pygmy using a giant typewriter".

Most science fiction/space opera authors in van Vogt's day did not strive to be absolutely flawless scientifically, preferring storytelling over accuracy. Despite this, van Vogt has been singled out by some critics for it. Examples:

Bibliography

Novels

(dates given are the dates of the first publication in book form)

Collections

Non-fiction

References

  1. ^ For example, Peter Nicholls ( [1993] in Clute, John & Nicholls, Peter: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. John Frederick Clute (1940-) is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969 Peter Nicholls may refer to Peter Nicholls (writer - critic and co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Peter Nicholls New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 199. St Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the iconic Flatiron Building in New York City. ISBN 0-312-09618-6.  ) says "The beginning of Campbell's particular Golden Age of SF can be pinpointed as the summer of 1939," and goes on to begin the discussion with the July 1939 issue. Lester del Rey (del Rey, Lester (1979). Lester del Rey ( June 2 1915 &ndash May 10 1993) was an American Science fiction author and editor. The World of Science Fiction and Fantasy: The History of a Subculture. New York: Ballantine Books, 94. ISBN 0-345-25452-X.  ) comments that "July was the turning point".
  2. ^ Alexei Panshin, The Abyss of Wonder, Man Beyond Man, The Early Stories of A. E. van Vogt. Alexei Adams Panshin (born August 14, 1940) is an American author and Science fiction (SF critic
  3. ^ Charles Platt, Who Writes SF? Savoy Books, 1980. Charles Platt (born in London England 1945 is the author of 41 fiction and nonfiction books including science-fiction novels such as The Silicon Man and
  4. ^ Beetz, Kirk H. (1996). Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction. Beacham Publishing. ISBN 0933833385.  
  5. ^ Mullin, Dennis (October 22, 2007). Events 202 BC - Hannibal Barca, leader of the Carthaginians, is defeated by the Roman legions under Scipio Africanus Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Prix AURORA Awards. Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. Retrieved on 2008-05-02. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.

External links

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