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Leigh Douglass Brackett (December 7, 1915, in Los Angeles, California – March 18, 1978) was a writer of science fiction, mystery novels and — best known to the general public — Hollywood screenplays, most notably The Big Sleep (1945), Rio Bravo (1959), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Events 43 BC - Marcus Tullius Cicero assassinated 1696 - Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways Year 1915 ( MCMXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West Events 37 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius ' will and proclaims Caligula emperor Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar) United States cinema has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century The Big Sleep ( 1946) directed by Howard Hawks, is the first film version of Raymond Chandler 's novel of the same name (1939 The year 1945 in film involved some significant events Events Paramount Studios releases theatrical short Cartoon Rio Bravo is a 1959 Western Film, directed by Howard Hawks. The script was written by Jules Furthman and Leigh The year 1959 in film involved some significant events Events The Three Stooges make their 180th and last short film The Long Goodbye ( 1973) is a film adaptation of Raymond Chandler 's novel The Long Goodbye. The year 1973 in film involved some significant events Events The Marx Brothers ' Zeppo Marx divorces his second Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 Space opera Film directed by Irvin Kershner. The year 1980 in film involved some significant events Events April 30 - The Roger Daltrey film McVicar, opens

Contents

Career

Brackett's first published science fiction story was "Martian Quest", which appeared in the February 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American Science fiction Magazine. Her earliest years as a writer (1940-1942) were her most productive in numbers of stories written; however, these works show a writer still engaged in mastering her craft. The first of her science fiction stories still attempt to emphasize a quasi-scientific angle, with problems resolved by an appeal to the (usually imaginary) chemical, biological, or physical laws of her invented worlds. As Brackett became more comfortable as an author, this element receded and was replaced by adventure stories with a strong touch of fantasy. Occasional stories have social themes, such as "The Citadel of Lost Ships" (1943), which considers the effects on the native cultures of alien worlds of Earth's expanding trade empire.

Brackett's first novel, No Good from a Corpse, published in 1944, was a hard-boiled mystery novel in the tradition of Raymond Chandler. Hardboiled Crime fiction is a literary style pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the Raymond Thornton Chandler ( July 23, 1888 &ndash March 26, 1959) was an American Author of crime stories and novels Hollywood director Howard Hawks was so impressed by this novel that he had his secretary call in "this guy Brackett" to help William Faulkner write the script for The Big Sleep (1946). Howard Winchester Hawks ( May 30, 1896 &ndash December 26, 1977) was an American Film director, producer and William Faulkner (born William Cuthbert Falkner) ( September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American Author The Big Sleep ( 1946) directed by Howard Hawks, is the first film version of Raymond Chandler 's novel of the same name (1939 The film, starring Humphrey Bogart and written by Leigh Brackett, William Faulkner, and Jules Furthman, is considered one of the best movies ever made in the genre. Jules Furthman ( March 5, 1888 - September 22, 1966) was a magazine and newspaper writer before working as a Screenwriter.

At the same time, Brackett's science fiction stories were becoming more ambitious. Shadow Over Mars (1944) was her first novel-length science fiction story, and though still somewhat rough-edged, marked the beginning of a new style, strongly influenced by the characterization of the 1940s detective story and film noir. Brackett's heroes from this period are tough, two-fisted, semi-criminal, ill-fated adventurers. Shadow's Rick Urquhart (reputedly modelled on Humphrey Bogart's shadier film characters) is a ruthless, selfish space drifter, who just happens to be caught in a web of political intrigue that accidentally places the fate of Mars in his hands.

In 1946, the same year that Brackett married science fiction author Edmond Hamilton, Planet Stories published the novella "Lorelei of the Red Mist". Edmond Moore Hamilton ( October 21, 1904 - February 1 1977) was a popular author of Science fiction stories and novels during the mid-twentieth Planet Stories was a pulp Science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House with a total of 71 issues appeared between 1939 and 1955 Brackett only finished the first half before turning it over to Planet Stories' other acclaimed author, Ray Bradbury, so that she could leave to work on The Big Sleep. Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22 1920 is an American mainstream, Fantasy, horror, Science fiction and mystery "Lorelei"'s main character is an out-and-out criminal, a thief called Hugh Starke. Though the story was well concluded by Bradbury, Brackett seems to have felt that her ideas in this story were insufficiently addressed, as she returns to them in later stories—particularly "Enchantress of Venus" (1949).

Brackett returned from her break from science-fiction writing, caused by her cinematic endeavors, in 1948. From then on to 1951, she produced a series of science fiction adventure stories that were longer, more ambitious, and better written than her previous work. To this period belong such classic representations of her planetary settings as "The Moon that Vanished" and the novel-length Sea-Kings of Mars (1949), later published as The Sword of Rhiannon, a vivid description of Mars before its oceans evaporated.

With "Queen of the Martian Catacombs" (1949), Brackett found for the first time a character that she cared to return to. Brackett's Eric John Stark is sometimes compared to Robert E. Howard's Conan, but is in many respects closer to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan or Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli. Erik John Stark is a character created by Science fiction author Leigh Brackett. Robert Ervin Howard ( January 22 1906 &ndash June 11 1936) was an American pulp writer of Fantasy, Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with Tarzan is a Fictional character, an archetypal Feral child raised in the African jungle by Apes who later returns to civilization only to Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 was an English Author and poet Mowgli (ˈmaʊɡli is a fictional character who originally appeared in Rudyard Kipling 's Short story "In the Rukh" (collected in Many Inventions Stark, an orphan from Earth, is raised by the semi-sentient aboriginals of Mercury, who are later killed by Earthmen. He is saved from the same fate by a Terran official, who adopts Stark and becomes his mentor. When threatened, however, Eric John Stark frequently reverts to the primitive N'Chaka, the "man without a tribe" that he was on Mercury. Thus, Stark is the archetypical modern man—a beast with a thin veneer of civilization. From 1949 to 1951, Stark (whose name obviously echoes that of the hero in "Lorelei") appeared in three tales, all published in Planet Stories; the aforementioned "Queen", "Enchantress of Venus", and finally "Black Amazon of Mars". With this last story Brackett's period of writing high adventure ends.

Brackett's stories thereafter adopted a more elegiac tone. They no longer celebrate the conflicts of frontier worlds, but lament the passing away of civilizations. The stories now concentrate more upon mood than on plot. The reflective, retrospective nature of these stories is indicated in the titles: "The Last Days of Shandakor"; "Shannach — the Last"; "Last Call from Sector 9G".

This last story was published in the very last issue (Summer 1955) of Planet Stories, always Brackett's most reliable market for science fiction. With the disappearance of Planet Stories and, later in 1955, of Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories, the market for Brackett's brand of story dried up, and the first phase of her career as a science fiction author ended. A few other stories trickled out over the next decade, and old stories were revised and published as novels. A new production of this period was one of Brackett's most critically acclaimed science fiction novels, The Long Tomorrow (1955). This novel describes an agrarian, deeply technophobic society that develops after a nuclear war.

But most of Brackett's writing after 1955 was for the more lucrative film and television markets. In 1963 and 1964, she briefly returned to her old Martian milieu with a pair of stories; "The Road to Sinharat" can be regarded as an affectionate farewell to the world of "Queen of the Martian Catacombs", while the other – with the intentionally ridiculous title of "Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon" – borders on parody.

After another hiatus of nearly a decade, Brackett returned to science fiction in the seventies with the publication of The Ginger Star (1974), The Hounds of Skaith (1974), and The Reavers of Skaith (1976), collected as The Book of Skaith in 1976. Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. This trilogy brought Eric John Stark back for adventures upon the extrasolar planet of Skaith (rather than his old haunts of Mars and Venus).

Most of Brackett's science fiction can be characterized as space opera or planetary romance. Space opera is a subgenre of Speculative fiction or Science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often Melodramatic adventure set mainly or entirely Planetary romance is a type of Science fantasy story in which the bulk of the action consists of adventures on one or more exotic alien planets characterized by distinctive Almost all of her planetary romances take place within a common invented universe, the Leigh Brackett Solar System, which contains richly detailed fictional versions of the consensus Mars and Venus of science fiction in the 1930s–1950s. The Leigh Brackett Solar System is a fictional analogue to the real-world Solar System in which a majority of the Planetary romances of Leigh Brackett take Mars thus appears as a marginally habitable desert world, populated by ancient, decadent, and mostly humanoid races; Venus as a primitive, wet jungle planet, occupied by vigorous, primitive tribes and reptilian monsters. Brackett's Skaith combines elements of Brackett's other worlds with fantasy elements.

The fact that the settings of Brackett's stories range from a rocket-crowded interplanetary space to the superstitious backwaters of primitive or decadent planets allows her a great deal of scope for variation in style and subject matter. In a single story, Brackett can veer from space opera to hard-boiled detective fiction to Western to the borders of Celtic-inspired fantasy. Brackett cannot, therefore, be easily classified as a Sword and planet science fantasy writer; though swords and spears may show up in the most primitive regions of her planets, guns, blasters and electric-shock generators are more common weapons. Sword and Planet is a Subgenre of Speculative fiction that features rousing adventure stories set on other planets and usually featuring Earthmen as protagonists Science fantasy is a mixed Genre of story which contains some Science fiction and some Fantasy elements

Though the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs is apparent in Brackett's Mars stories, the differences between their versions of Mars are great. Edgar Rice Burroughs ( September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author best known for his creation of the jungle hero Brackett's Mars is set firmly in a world of interplanetary commerce and competition, and one of the most prominent themes of Brackett's stories is the clash of planetary civilizations; the stories both illustrate and criticize the effects of colonialism on civilizations which are either older or younger than those of the colonizers, and thus they have relevance to this day. See Colony and Colonization for examples of colonialism which do not refer to Western colonialism Burroughs' heroes set out to remake entire worlds according to their own codes; Brackett's heroes (often anti-heroes) are at the mercy of trends and movements far bigger than they are.

The Empire Strikes Back

Brackett worked on the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back. Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 Space opera Film directed by Irvin Kershner. The movie won the Hugo Award in 1981. The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best Science fiction or Fantasy works and achievements of the previous year Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 This script was a departure for Brackett, since until then, all of her science fiction had been in the form of novels and short stories.

The exact role which Brackett played in writing the script for Empire is the subject of a small controversy. What is agreed on by all is that George Lucas asked Brackett to write the screenplay based on his story outline. George Walton Lucas Jr (born May 14, 1944) is an Academy Award -winning American Film director, producer, Screenwriter It is also known that Brackett wrote a finished first draft which was delivered to Lucas shortly before Brackett's death from cancer on March 18, 1978. Events 37 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius ' will and proclaims Caligula emperor Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar) The screenplay was revised for filming by Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan, and both Brackett and Kasdan (though not Lucas) were given credit for the final script. Lawrence Kasdan (born 14 January, 1949) is an American movie producer, director and Screenwriter.

The exact relationship between Brackett's draft script and the revised shooting script is a matter of disagreement. Many reviewers have believed that they could detect traces of Brackett's influence in both the dialogue and the treatment of the space opera genre in Empire. [1] However, Laurent Bouzereau in his book Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays states that Lucas disliked the direction of Brackett's screenplay and discarded it. He then produced two screenplays before turning the results over to Kasdan, who did not work directly with Brackett's script at all. According to this scenario, Lucas' assignment of credit to Brackett was a mere courtesy or mark of respect for the work Brackett had done during her illness. [2] Support for this view comes from Stephen Haffner, owner of the press that printed Martian Quest: The Early Brackett, who has read Brackett's script, and claims that -- outside Lucas' storyline -- nothing of Brackett's personal contributions to the script survives into the finished movie.

Brackett's screenplay has never been published. According to Haffner, it can be read at the library of the Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico, but may not be copied or borrowed off-site. Eastern New Mexico University (abbreviated ENMU) frequently called Eastern, is a state university in Portales, Roosevelt County Portales is a city in and the County seat of Roosevelt County, New Mexico, United States.

Bibliography

Short science fiction

1940–1941

1942-1944

1945-1950

1951-1955

After 1955

Science fiction novels

Skaith novels

Science fiction collections

Science fiction, as editor

Other genres

See also

References

  1. ^ Hart, Stephen. Unlike his brother the documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock, filmmaker Philip Leacock ( 8 October 1917 in London - 1990 spent his childhood in the Erik John Stark is a character created by Science fiction author Leigh Brackett. The Leigh Brackett Solar System is a fictional analogue to the real-world Solar System in which a majority of the Planetary romances of Leigh Brackett take Galactic Gasbag. salon. com.
  2. ^ Perry, Robert Michael. A Certain Point of View. www. echostation. com.

External links

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