Richard A. Lupoff
Encyclopedia
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and mystery author, who has also written humor, satire, non-fiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he has also edited science-fantasy anthologies. He is an expert on the writing of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
and has an equally strong interest in H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1970 he worked in the computer industry.
His genre career began in science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
in the 1950s. As a long-time participant, he worked on a number of science fiction fanzine
Science fiction fanzine
A science fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day...
s, notably Xero
Xero (SF fanzine)
Xero was a fanzine edited and published from 1960 to 1963 by Dick Lupoff, Pat Lupoff and Bhob Stewart. With a main focus on science fiction and comic books, Xero also featured essays, satire, articles, poetry, artwork and cartoons on a wide range of other topics.The articles and letter columns...
, which he edited in the early 1960s with his wife Pat and Bhob Stewart
Bhob Stewart
Bhob Stewart is an American writer, editor, artist and film maker who has written for a variety of publications over a span of five decades. His articles and reviews have appeared in TV Guide, Publishers Weekly and other publications, along with online contributions to Allmovie, the Collecting...
. It received the Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Fanzine
Hugo Award for Best Fanzine
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
in 1963. The roster of contributors included such names as Dan Adkins
Dan Adkins
Dan Adkins is an American illustrator who worked mainly for comic books and science-fiction magazines.-Early life and career:...
, James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
, Lin Carter
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...
, Avram Davidson
Avram Davidson
Avram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche...
, L. Sprague de Camp
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
(then 19 years of age), Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
, Ed Gorman
Edward Gorman
Ed Gorman is an award-winning American author best known for his crime and mystery fiction. He wrote The Poker Club which is currently in post production for a film of the same name directed by Tim McCann....
, Eddie Jones
Eddie Jones (artist)
Eddie Jones , born Edward John Jones, was a British science fiction illustrator, who started as a fan artist. He illustrated numerous science fiction book covers, some under the pseudonym S. Fantoni, and provided interior illustrations for books and magazines. Jones was active in the field from...
, Roy G. Krenkel, Frederik Pohl
Frederik Pohl
Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...
and Bob Tucker. In 2004, a hardcover anthology, The Best of Xero, coedited with Pat Lupoff and featuring a nostalgic introduction by Ebert, was published by Tachyon Publications
Tachyon Publications
Tachyon Publications is an independent press specializing in science fiction and fantasy books. Founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Jacob Weisman, Tachyon books have tended toward high-end literary works, short story collections, and anthologies....
. It was in turn nominated for the Hugo Award.
Lupoff also wrote reviews for the fanzine Algol, and he was an editor of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
for Canaveral Press. In a memoir for Omni On-Line
Omni (magazine)
OMNI was a science and science fiction magazine published in the US and the UK. It contained articles on science fact and short works of science fiction...
, he recalled the chain of events that led him to write his 1965 biography of Burroughs (reprinted in 2005 by the University of Nebraska Press' Bison Books):
Fiction foray
He began publishing fiction in 1967 with the novel One Million Centuries, followed by Sacred Locomotive Flies (1971) and Into the Aether (1974). He is credited with more than 50 books, plus short fiction, non-fiction and memoirs. He sometimes wrote under pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
s, notably Ova Hamlet, a name he frequently used for parodies. Pastiche and recursiveness are features of his writing: "pastiche" in that much of his work involves writing stories that play with styles or even universes created by other writers; "recursiveness" meaning that his work often includes other authors or friends as characters.
Among his most famous novels are the duology Circumpolar! (1984
1984 in literature
The year 1984 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The book Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is widely read....
) and Countersolar! (1985
1985 in literature
The year 1985 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire*Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale*Jean M. Auel - The Mammoth Hunters*Iain Banks - Walking on Glass...
). His short fiction, which has often been collected and anthologized, includes the short story "12:01 PM
12:01 PM
"12:01 PM" is a short story by American writer Richard A. Lupoff, which was published in the December 1973 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story was twice adapted by Hollywood, first in 1990 as a short film, and again in 1993 as a television movie...
." Originally in the December 1973, issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
, the story was adapted into both the Oscar-nominated short film 12:01 PM
12:01 PM (1990 film)
12:01 PM is a 1990 short film starring Kurtwood Smith. Directed by Jonathan Heap, it originally aired on cable television in 1990 as part of the Showtime 30-Minute Movie anthology series. It was nominated for an Academy Award....
(1990) and the TV movie 12:01
12:01 (1993 film)
12:01 is a 1993 television film directed by Jack Sholder, and starring Helen Slater, Jonathan Silverman, Jeremy Piven, and Martin Landau. It originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States....
(1993). His novelette "After the Dreamtime" and his short story "Sail the Tide of Mourning" received Hugo Award nominations in 1975 and 1976.
His novel Sword of the Demon was nominated for the 1977 Nebula Award
Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.- Winners and other nominees :...
. Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple nominee of the Hugo Award and a winner of the Nebula Award.-Early years:...
described it as "a strange and austerely beautiful fable that cuts across genre lines." His first collection of short mystery stories is Quintet: The Cases of Chase and Delacroix (Crippen & Landru, 2008).
Series
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1978)
- That Man On Beta (1979)
- Philip José FarmerPhilip José FarmerPhilip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
's The Dungeon (Dungeon seriesDungeon seriesThe Dungeon Series is a series of fantasy novels written under the auspices of Philip José Farmer, who wrote an introduction for each book in the series...
)- First book: The Black Tower (1988)
- Sixth book: The Final Battle (1990)
- Sun's End
- Sun's End (1984)
- Galaxy's End (1988)
- Twin Planets
- Circumpolar! (19841984 in literatureThe year 1984 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The book Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is widely read....
) - Countersolar! (19851985 in literatureThe year 1985 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire*Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale*Jean M. Auel - The Mammoth Hunters*Iain Banks - Walking on Glass...
)
- Circumpolar! (1984
Novels
- One Million Centuries (1967)
- Sacred Locomotive Flies (1971)
- Into the Aether (1974)
- The Crack in the Sky [vt Fool's Hill (1978 UK)](1976)
- Sandworld (1976)
- Lisa Kane (1976)
- The Triune Man (1976)
- Sword of the Demon (1977)
- The Return of SkullFace (1977)
- Space War BluesSpace War BluesSpace War Blues is a science fiction novel by American writer Richard A. Lupoff. It is a fixup of several previously published pieces, the longest of which, "With The Bentfin Boomer Boys On Little Old New Alabama," first appeared in Harlan Ellison's 1972 anthology Again, Dangerous Visions...
(1978) - Lovecraft's BookLovecraft's BookLovecraft's Book is a historical novel by author Richard A. Lupoff. It was released in 1985 by Arkham House in an edition of 3,544 copies. It was the author's first book published by Arkham House.-Plot summary:...
(1985) - The Forever City (1988)
- The Comic Book Killer (1988)
- The Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and His Incredible Aether Flyer (1991) with Steve Stiles
- The Cover Girl Killer (1995)
- Claremont Tales (2001)
- Marblehead (Ramble HouseRamble HouseRamble House is a small American publisher founded by Fender Tucker and Jim Weiler in 1999. The press specializes in reprints of long-neglected and rare crime fiction novels, modern crime fiction and scholarly works by noted authors on the crime fiction genre, and a host of other diverse books of a...
, 2006). The unexpurgated edition of Lovecraft's BookLovecraft's BookLovecraft's Book is a historical novel by author Richard A. Lupoff. It was released in 1985 by Arkham House in an edition of 3,544 copies. It was the author's first book published by Arkham House.-Plot summary:...
.
Non-fiction
- Master of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice BurroughsMaster of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice BurroughsMaster of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs is a book by Richard A. Lupoff that explores the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan and author of numerous science fiction, fantasy, and adventure novels...
(1965, a 2005 reprint in the Bison Frontiers of Imagination series)
Edited
- All in Color for a Dime (1970), collection of essays about comic books, with Don Thompson
- What If? Volume 1, Stories That Should Have Won The Hugo, (1980), stories from 1952-1958.
- What If? Volume 2, Stories That Should Have Won The Hugo, (1981).
External links
- "Richard Lupoff at Shorter Length" by Claude Lalumière
- Bibliography on SciFanSciFanSciFan is an online database for fans of science fiction and fantasy books.The site provides detailed bibliographies, linking books together into series' where appropriate and, in turn, grouping series by universe...
- ERBzine: "Lupoff of Mars" by Dale R. Broadhurst
- Earl Kemp on Richard Lupoff