Information AboutFrank Herbert |
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Frank Patrick Herbert ( October 8 , 1920 – February 11 , 1986 ) was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American Science Fiction Author . He is best known for the novel '' Dune '', and the five other novels in the series that followed it. The Dune saga dealt with themes such as human survival and Evolution , Ecology , and the intersection of Religion , Politics , and Power , and is considered to be one of the greatest science fiction tales ever written, and as a classic of literature in general. BIOGRAPHY Frank Herbert was born in 1920 in Tacoma , Washington . He knew from an early age that he wanted to be a writer. In 1939 he lied about his age in order to get his first Newspaper job on the '' Glendale Star ''. There was a temporary hiatus to his writing career as he served in the U.S. Navy as a photographer during World War II . He married Flora Parkinson in 1941, but divorced her in 1945 after fathering a daughter. After the war he attended the University Of Washington , where he met Beverly Ann Stuart at a Creative Writing class in 1946. They were the only students in the class who had sold any work for publication—Herbert had sold two Pulp adventure stories to magazines, and Stuart had sold a story to ''Modern Romance'' magazine. They married in Seattle on June 20, 1946. Their first son, Brian Herbert , was born in 1947. Frank Herbert did not graduate from college, according to Brian, because he only wanted to study what interested him and so didn't complete the required courses. After college he returned to journalism and worked at the '' Seattle Star '' and the '' Oregon Statesman ''; he was also a writer and editor for the '' San Francisco Examiner's '' ''California Living'' magazine for a decade. Herbert began reading Science Fiction in the 1940s, and by the 1950s he began to write it, with short stories appearing in '' Startling Stories '' and other magazines. During the next decade he published nearly twenty short stories. His career as a novelist began with the publication of '' The Dragon In The Sea '' in 1955, where he used the environment of a 21st century submarine as a way to explore sanity and madness. The book predicted worldwide conflicts over Oil consumption and production. It was a critical success but not a major commercial one. Herbert began researching ''Dune'' in 1959 and was able to devote himself more wholeheartedly to his writing career because his wife returned to work full time as an advertising writer for department stores, becoming the main breadwinner during the 1960s. Herbert later related in an interview with Willis E. McNeilly that the novel originated when he was supposed to do a magazine article on sand dunes in Florence , Oregon , but he became too involved in it and ended up with far more raw material than needed for a single article. The article was never written, but it did serve as the seed for the ideas that led to ''Dune''. ''Dune'' took six years of research and writing to complete. Far longer than commercial science fiction of the time was supposed to be, it was serialized in '' Analog '' magazine in two separate parts, in 1963 and 1965. It was then rejected by nearly twenty book publishers before finally being accepted. One editor prophetically wrote back "I might be making the mistake of the decade, but..." before rejecting the manuscript. Finally, Chilton, a minor publishing house in Philadelphia, gave Herbert a $7,500 advance, and ''Dune'' was soon a critical success. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965 and shared the Hugo Award in 1966. ''Dune'' was the first Ecological science fiction novel, containing a multitude of sweeping, inter-relating themes and multiple character viewpoints, a method that ran through all Herbert's mature work. The book was not an instant Bestseller . By 1968 Herbert had made $20,000 from it, far more than most science fiction novels of the time were generating, but not enough to let him take up full-time writing. However, the publication of ''Dune'' did open doors for him. He was the '' Seattle Post-Intelligencer's '' education writer from 1969 to 1972 and lecturer in General Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Washington (1970–2). He worked in Vietnam and Pakistan as social and ecological consultant in 1972. In 1973 he was director-photographer of the television show ''The Tillers''. By 1972, he was able to become a full-time writer. During the 1970s and 1980s, Herbert enjoyed considerable commercial success as an author. He lived between '', '' The Lazarus Effect '' and '' The Ascension Factor ''. Herbert's change in fortune was shaded by tragedy. In 1974, Beverly underwent an operation for Cancer that gave her ten more years of life, but adversely affected her health. She died on February 7, 1984. In his afterword to '' Chapterhouse Dune '', Herbert wrote a moving eulogy for his wife. 1984 was a tumultuous year in Herbert's life. In the same year that his wife died, his career took off with the release of David Lynch 's film version of ''Dune''. Despite high expectations, a big-budget production design and an A-list cast, the movie drew mostly poor reviews in the United States. However, despite a disappointing response in the USA, the film was a critical and commercial success in Europe and Japan. The same year Herbert published the fifth book in the Dune saga, '' Heretics Of Dune ''. After Beverly's death, Herbert married Theresa Shackelford later in the year. In 1986 Herbert published '' Chapterhouse Dune '', which tied up many of the saga's story threads. This was to be Herbert's final single work. He died of Pancreatic Cancer on February 11, 1986, in Madison , Wisconsin , at age 65. CONTINUATION OF THE DUNE SERIES In recent years, Frank Herbert's son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson have begun adding to the Dune Universe , using notes left behind by Frank Herbert on both the history of the Dune universe before the events of ''Dune'' and the novel he had planned to follow ''Chapterhouse Dune''. They are now preparing two post-Chapterhouse novels ('' Hunters Of Dune '' and '' Sandworms Of Dune '') based on the "Dune 7" outline Frank Herbert left behind at his death. See also 'Controversies' below. IDEAS AND THEMES Frank Herbert used his science fiction novels to explore complex ideas involving Philosophy , Religion , Psychology , Politics and ecology, which have inspired many of his readers to become interested in these areas. The underlying thrust in Frank Herbert's work was his fascination with the question of human survival and Evolution . Frank Herbert has attracted a fanatical fanbase, many of whom have tried to read everything Frank Herbert has written, fiction or non-fiction, and see Frank Herbert as something of a Guru . Indeed such was the devotion of some of his readers that Frank Herbert was at times accused of trying to create a Cult . There are a number of key themes in Herbert's work:
Frank Herbert carefully refrained from offering his readers firm answers to many of the questions he explored. QUOTES ''Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock.'' STATUS AND IMPACT IN SCIENCE FICTION ''Dune'' is the world's best-selling science fiction novel, and the ''Dune'' saga is the best-selling science fiction series. In addition, ''Dune'' has received widespread critical acclaim, winning the Nebula Award in 1965 and sharing the Hugo Award in 1966. According to contemporary Robert A. Heinlein , Herbert's opus was "powerful, convincing, and most ingenious." ''Dune'' is also considered a landmark novel for a number of reasons:
Herbert wrote over twenty novels after ''Dune'' that are regarded as being of variable quality. Books like '' The Green Brain '', '' The Santaroga Barrier '' and '' Hellstrom's Hive '' seemed to hark back to the days before ''Dune'', when a good technological idea was all that was needed to drive a sci-fi novel. And some fans of the ''Dune'' saga are critical of the follow-up novels as being subpar. Herbert never equalled the critical acclaim he received from ''Dune''. Neither his sequels to ''Dune'' nor any of his other books won a Hugo or Nebula Award, although almost all of them were ''New York Times'' Bestsellers. Some felt that '' Children Of Dune '' was almost too literary and too dark to get the recognition it may have deserved, and that ''The Dosadi Experiment'' lacked an epic quality fans had come to expect. To conclude, Malcolm Edwards in the '' Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction '' wrote: :"Much of work makes difficult reading. His ideas were genuinely developed concepts, not merely decorative notions, but they were sometimes embodied in excessively complicated plots and articulated in prose which did not always match the level of thinking... His best novels, however, were the work of a speculative intellect with few rivals in modern [science fiction ." CONTROVERSIES Since Frank Herbert's death, there has been a controversy among his fans on whether the new Dune books by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson should be considered canonical (see Dune Discrepancies for more detail). Some critics have argued that the prequel books do not have the quality of the original series and lack the articulation of complex ideas about human life that were such a concern of Frank Herbert. Brian Herbert has said that his father had asked him to write further Dune novels (particularly the story of the Butlerian Jihad ). Further, Brian is the acknowledged legal heir of his fathers estate, and the two did collaborate on some earlier works. Some people interpret this to mean that the new books follow Frank's wishes and intent, while others disagree, citing apparent discrepancies in facts and themes between the original books and the new ones. Brian Herbert says that in his possession, he has notes and outlines made by Frank Herbert for two more books (7 & 8) in the Dune universe, sequels to ''Chapterhouse Dune'' entitled '' Hunters Of Dune '' and '' Sandworms Of Dune '', respectively. A few fans have expressed doubt that Brian Herbert has the notes and outlines, citing the aforementioned divergence from their interpretation of Frank Herbert's vision and alleging that the reappearance of the notes is conspicuously convenient. Against that, it has been argued that Brian is Frank's legal heir, so all of Frank's notes would necessarily be in Brian's possession; likewise, it is widely known that Frank Herbert worked on multiple books simultaneously and kept copious notes. Another minor controversy in this is between the fans who view the '' Dune Encyclopedia '' as mostly canonical (except where Frank Herbert himself contradicted it) and cite discrepancies between it and Brian Herbert's books. This is a minor point, since Frank Herbert did not regard it as canonical, and didn't hesitate to contradict it, though he did find it "interesting and entertaining". Regardless of opinion, Brian is the heir to Frank Herbert's creative properties, so his additions to the Dune universe are '' Prima Facie '' canon where the ''Dune Encyclopedia'' is concerned. FILM ADAPTATIONS A film of the novel, '' Dune '', was directed by David Lynch in 1984. Although panned by many fans and film critics, Frank Herbert was pleased with the movie. It has done well on video and DVD. ''Dune'' was made into a TV mini-series by the Sci Fi Channel (United States) in 2000 . This was commercially successful, and the Sci-Fi Channel continued the Dune saga with a further mini-series in 2003 entitled ''Children of Dune'', which merges parts of the plots of the novels ''Dune Messiah'' and ''Children of Dune''. BIBLIOGRAPHY Fiction Novels
Short fiction collections
Short fiction
Nonfiction Nonfiction Books
Essays and introductions
Significant newspaper articles
Other publications Poetry
Audio recordings
Interviews
Limited bibliography by universe Dune universe: See Also: Dune universe ConSentiency universe: See Also: ConSentiency
Destination: Void universe:
BOOKS ABOUT FRANK HERBERT AND DUNE
EXTERNAL LINKS
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