Stanley G. Weinbaum
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Stanley Grauman Weinbaum (April 4, 1902-December 14, 1935) was an American science fiction author. His career in science fiction was short but influential. His first story, "A Martian Odyssey", was published to great acclaim in July 1934. Weinbaum would be dead from lung cancer within eighteen months.
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[edit] Biography and Writing Career
Weinbaum was born in Louisville, Kentucky and attended school in Milwaukee. He attended the University of Wisconsin, first as a chemical engineering major but later switching to English as his major, but contrary to common belief he did not graduate. On a bet, Weinbaum had taken an exam for a friend and was later discovered; he left the university in 1923.
He is most noted for the groundbreaking SF short story, "A Martian Odyssey", which presented a sympathetic but decidedly non-human alien, Tweel. Even more remarkably, this was his first science fiction story [in 1933 he had sold a romantic novel ("The Lady Dances") to King Features Syndicate, which then serialized the story in their newspapers (early 1934)]. Isaac Asimov has described "A Martian Odyssey" as "a perfect Campbellian science fiction story, before John W. Campbell. Indeed, Tweel may be the first creature in science fiction to fulfil Campbell's dictum, 'write me a creature who thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a man'." Asimov went on to describe the story as one of only three stories that changed the way all subsequent stories in the Science Fiction genre were written. It is the oldest short story (and one of the top vote-getters) included in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
Most of Weinbaum's work that was published in his lifetime appeared in Astounding and Wonder Stories.
A film version of his story "The Adaptive Ultimate" was released in 1957 under the title She Devil, starring Mari Blanchard, Jack Kelly, and Albert Dekker. The story was also dramatized on television in the 1950's (at least one such production by Studio One was entitled "Kyra Zelas").
A crater on Mars is named in his honor.
At the time of his death, Weinbaum was writing a (non-science fiction) novel never completed, Three Who Danced. In this novel, the Prince of Wales is unexpectedly present at a dance in an obscure American community, where he decides to dance with three of the local girls, choosing each girl for a different reason. The rest of the novel details how each girl's life changes (happily or tragically) as a result of the unexpected attention she received.
In 1993, his widow donated his papers to the Temple University Library in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. The donation includes several unpublished manuscripts, including "Three Who Danced," as well as other unpublished stories (most are romance stories, but there are also a few non-fiction and fiction writings included, none of which are science fiction).
Several of Weinbaum's pieces first appeared in the early fanzine Fantasy Magazine (successor to Science Fiction Digest) in the 1930's, including an "Auto-Biographical Sketch" in the 6/35 issue. Despite common belief, Weinbaum was not one of the contributors to the multi-authored Cosmos serial in Science Fiction Digest/Fantasy Magazine. He did, however, contribute to the multi-author story The Challenge From Beyond, published in the September 1935 issue of Fantasy Magazine.
[edit] Weinbaum's Solar System
All of Weinbaum's interplanetary stories (he wrote nine and began a tenth which was completed after his death by his sister Helen Weinbaum) were set in a consistent Solar System that was scientifically accurate by 1930s standards. The birdlike Martians of "A Martian Odyssey" and "Valley of Dreams", for instance, are mentioned in "Redemption Cairn", and the Venusian trioptes of "Parasite Planet" and "The Lotus Eaters" are mentioned in "The Mad Moon". In Weinbaum's Solar System, in accordance with the then-current near-collision hypothesis, the gas giants radiate heat, enough to warm their satellites to Earthlike temperatures, allowing for Earthlike environments on Io, Europa, Titan, and even Uranus. Mars and Venus are also sufficiently Earthlike to allow humans to walk their surfaces unprotected.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- The Lady Dances (King-Features Syndicate 1933) - This story (published under the name of "Marge Stanley") was published as a newspaper serial in early 1934 and has not been reprinted.
- The New Adam (Ziff-Davis 1939)
- The Black Flame (Fantasy Press 1948)
- The Black Flame (Complete Restored Edition) (Tachyon Publishing 1997; ISBN 0-9648320-0-3)
- The Dark Other aka The Mad Brain (Fantasy Publishing Company 1950)
[edit] Short stories
- "The Adaptive Ultimate" in 11/35 Astounding (as by John Jessel)
- "The Black Flame" in 1/39 Startling
- "The Brink of Infinity" in 12/36 Thrilling Wonder
- "The Circle of Zero" in 8/36 Thrilling Wonder
- "The Challenge From Beyond" in 9/35 Fantasy Magazine (Weinbaum wrote the opening 800+ words of this multi-author story.)
- "Dawn of Flame" in 6/39 Thrilling wonder
- "Flight on Titan" in 1/35 Astounding (found in ISBN 0-88355-152-7)
- "Graph" in 9/36 Fantasy Magazine
- "Green Glow of Death" in 7/57 Crack Detective and Mystery Stories
- "The Ideal" in 9/35 Wonder
- "The Lotus Eaters" in 4/35 Astounding
- "The Mad Moon" in 12/35 Astounding
- "A Martian Odyssey" in 7/34 Wonder
- "Parasite Planet" in 2/35 Astounding
- "The Planet of Doubt" in 10/35 Astounding
- "The Point of View" in 1/36 Wonder
- "Proteus Island" in 8/36 Astounding
- "Pygmalion's Spectacles" in 6/35 Wonder
- "The Red Peri" in 11/35 Astounding
- "Redemption Cairn" in 3/36 Astounding
- "Revolution of 1950" 10-11/38 Amazing (with Roger Sherman Hoar writing as Ralph Milne Farley)
- "Shifting Seas" in 4/37 Amazing
- "Smothered Seas" in 1/36 Astounding
- "Tidal Moon" in 12/38 Thrilling Wonder (with Helen Weinbaum, his sister)
- "Valley of Dreams" in 11/34 Wonder
- "The Worlds of If" in 8/35 Wonder
- "Yellow Slaves" in 2/36 True Gang Life (with Roger Sherman Hoar writing as Ralph Milne Farley)
Book collections of Weinbaum stories:
- The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum, Ballantine, 1974
- The Black Heart, Leonaur Publishing, 2006
- Dawn of Flame: The Stanley G. Weinbaum Memorial Volume, Conrad H. Ruppert, 1936
- Interplanetary Odysseys, Leonaur Publishing, 2006
- A Martian Odyssey and Other Science Fiction Tales, Hyperion Press, 1974
- A Martian Odyssey and Others, Fantasy Press, 1949
- A Martian Odyssey and Other Classics of Science Fiction, Lancer, 1962
- Other Earths, Leonaur Publishing, 2006
- The Red Peri, Fantasy Press, 1952
- Strange Genius, Leonaur Publishing, 2006
