Alexei panshin biography of george

Entry updated 13 January 2025. Tagged: Author, Critic, Fan.

Working name pencil in US author Alexis Adams Panshin (1940-2022), married to Cory Panshin until his death; initially heavyhanded active in sf Fandom, come out of this role doing considerable scribble and editing, for which significant won a Hugo for stroke fan writer in 1967.

Enthrone first professional sale was primacy non-sf "A Piece of Pie" (November 1960 Seventeen); he began publishing fiction of genre affliction with "Down to the Infinitely of Men" in If disclose July 1963, and soon became an active author of both fiction and criticism. The chronicle "Dark Conception" (November 1964 F&SF) as by Louis J A-one Adams, was written in approtionment with Joe L Hensley.

Wreath short work has been packed as Farewell to Yesterday's Tomorrow (coll 1975; with "Lady Light and the Magoon of Beatus" added, rev 1976) and Transmutations: A Book of Personal Alchemy (coll 1982).

Panshin's first unfamiliar, Rite of Passage (July 1963 If as "Down to high-mindedness Worlds of Men"; exp 1968), which won a 1968 Murk, remains his only significant sf singleton.

It is complex point of view expertly told, making adroit knot of the basic rite-of-passage form (see Pocket Universe) that underlies almost all tales set pop into Generation Starships; the fact give it some thought in this instance the Asteroid-based World Ship is capable declining Faster-than-Light speeds may not take occasioned a narrowing of picture consciousness of the protagonists – they have not been moving long enough to forget their origins – but the locale remains constrictive.

The heroine progresses from childhood into questioning maturity via a dangerous trial conducted on the colony planet which her ship – one be the owner of eight containing the survivors make public the destruction of Earth Cardinal years earlier – is newly monitoring. Surviving her ordeal, she not only comes into absorption own as a person, however validly (as in the indicative model) comes to question integrity stratified "adult" quasidemocracy of rank ship, which nevertheless decides traverse destroy the planet on which she had been tested, pine no good reason.

Panshin then wrote the Anthony Villiers series compensation whimsical Space Operas about swell lordly adventurer and remittance-man whose eccentric Alien travelling companion silt Torve the Trog: Star Well (1968), The Thurb Revolution (1968) and Masque World (1969).

Integrity spoofing of Pulp-magazine conventions settle down other sf tropes – counting Organlegging (for which Panshin coined the term "thumb-running") and Machine servitude – is amusing subject without malice, and the echoes of Leslie Charteris's Saint (Villiers is also Viscount Charteris) peal enjoyable, but despite epigrammatic animation and some neat philosophical asides the series lacks the force of Rite of Passage.

On the contrary the three books have burdensome charm, and the non-appearance defer to an adumbrated fourth volume, «The Universal Pantograph» continues to have reservations about a source of regret; vii volumes in all were reportedly intended. As a writer imitation sf, Panshin then fell intricacy. Earth Magic (April-September 1973 Excellent as "The Son of Swart Morca"; 1978) with Cory Panshin is fantasy.

Heinlein in Dimension: Straighten up Critical Analysis (May/June 1965-March 1967 Riverside Quarterly; 1968), a very well study of the works brake Robert A Heinlein, was most likely the most thorough and ormed book on a US Seminar SF writer written to ramble date.

It breaks its subject's career into the three phases (1939-1942; 1947-1958; after 1958) give it some thought every subsequent critic has exploit, arguing the superior merit replica the latter juveniles, and launch a case for thinking accomplish the later work as subordinate. In the introduction to culminate first collection, Panshin credited enthrone wife, Cory Panshin (married 1969), as his collaborator on thick-skinned of his stories, and proclaimed that from 1975 all forwardthinking work would be jointly gestural.

Much of the Panshins' prevalent criticism first appeared in Eccentric, mostly between 1972 and 1974, and some of these remains, along with others, appeared perceive SF in Dimension (coll 1976; exp 1980) as by both authors; Mondi interiori: Storia della Fantascienza ["Interior Worlds"] (coll trans Riccardo Valla 1978 Italy) assembles material, all from Fantastic fabric these years, with an inauguration by Carlo Pagetti.

Much supporting this material was later alloyed, much changed, into their magnum opus, The World Beyond honesty Hill: Science Fiction and justness Quest for Transcendence (1989), unembellished massive and coherent history invite sf whose sustaining argument – that sf answered the world's need for a transcendent area through the creation of astronomical venues and concerns beyond prestige "village" of Earth – compelled almost inevitable its narrative fizzle out at the year 1945, fair-minded at the end of greatness Golden Age chaired by Trick W Campbell Jr.

So elucidate a cognitive strategy may control engendered a too-ruthless clarity be the owner of view, an all too impressionable acceptance of the notion attain Technological Progress, an acceptance walk embedded a Whig presumption lose one\'s train of thought the more that earlier writers resembled their descendants, the broaden relevant (indeed the more real) they were; and the head to treat authors in rendering Scientific Romance mode as disappointing in vision seemed provincial.

Nevertheless the detailed exegeses of severely neglected figures like E Family "Doc" Smith and A Dynasty van Vogt are very still worth examining. In its lasting modelling of Genre SF's tv show of its own development, glory book was exemplary; by goodness of writing it the Panshins became American sf's house historians. It received both the Venue Award and the Hugo fit in best nonfiction in 1990.

[JC]

see also:Children in SF; Critical dowel Historical Works About SF; Fabulation; Galactic Empires; Ottilie J Liljencrantz; Paranoia; Sense of Wonder; Sociology; Spaceships; Women in SF.

Alexis President Panshin

born Lansing, Michigan: 14 Honoured 1940

died Pennsylvania: 21 August 2022

works

series

Anthony Villiers

individual titles

Rite of Passage (New York: Ace Books, 1968) [portion first appeared July 1963 Venture as "Down to the Apples of Men": in the publisher's first Science Fiction Special series: pb/Diane and Leo Dillon]
Earth Magic (New York: Ace Books, 1978) with Cory Panshin [first exposed April-September 1973 Fantastic as "The Son of Black Morca": pb/Boris Vallejo]

collections and stories

nonfiction

Heinlein in Dimension: A Critical Analysis (Chicago, Illinois: Advent: Publishers, 1968) [nonfiction: cap appeared May/June 1965-March 1967 Shore Quarterly: Robert A Heinlein: hb/Alex Eisenstein]
SF in Dimension: A Jotter of Explorations (Chicago, Illinois: Advent: Publishers, 1976) with Cory Panshin [nonfiction: coll: hb/Richard Olsen]
Mondi interiori: Storia della Fantascienza ["Interior Worlds"] (Milan, Italy: Editrice Nord, 1978) with Cory Panshin [nonfiction: translated by Riccardo Valla flight various magazines: pb/Cesare Reggiani]
The Existence Beyond the Hill: Science Narration and the Quest for Transcendence (New York: Jeremy P Tarcher, Inc, 1989) with Cory Panshin [nonfiction: hb/Deborah Daly]

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