-BRIAN W ALDISS
| Robert Sheckley was born
in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in New Jersey. He went into the
U.S. army after high school and served in Korea. After discharge he
attended New York University, graduating with an arts degree. He began
to sell stories to all the science-fiction magazines soon after his
graduation, producing several hundred stories over the next several
years. During this time Mr. Sheckley also wrote 15 episodes for the television series, CAPTAIN VIDEO. He wrote 60 short-short stories that were read aloud by Basil Rathbone on Monitor Radio. He also wrote THE PEOPLE TRAP for ABC-tv which became the basis for a two hour television special. Robert Sheckley wrote the short story Something for Nothing in 1952, while living in a third floor apartment for $65 a month in the West Village in New York City. In 1993 the story became the basis for The Utilizer. A veteran science fiction writer, Bob began his career in New York City during what is often referred to as the classic period of science fiction writing. His work was published in "Galaxy" and for other pulp magazines that paid up to four cents per word for each story. A master at the humor/fantasy genre, Bob was never lacking for story ideas back in the 50's when a trip to the moon was still a decade away. After filling countless notebooks with ideas, he began focusing on wish fulfillment stories, particularly Aladdin and his lamp, but with added twists. One major twist became the idea of immortality as a terrible penalty, rather than a desirable wish, and the story took shape after that. Bob continues to write at his home in Oregon. "It's a high, this writing thing," he says, "a kind of drug, and once you experience it nothing else is ever the same. Ordinary life seems like a prison sentence in comparison to the freedom of writing." His first novel, IMMORTALITY, INC., was produced as the movie FREEJACK, starring Emilio Esteban, Mick Jagger and Renee Russo. This book was republished in America by Tor Books, and in England, together with his classic MINDSWAP, by Legend, a division of Random House UK. His best-known books in the science-fiction field are IMMORTALITY, INC, MINDSWAP, and DIMENSION OF MIRACLES. They have had numerous publishers including Victor Gollancz in England and Dell, Delacorte and Bantam in the United States. He wrote the story which was the basis for the movie THE TENTH VICTIM, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress. The novel was published by Ballantine Books. His short story, THE PRIZE OF PERIL, was the basis for the French movie LA PRIX DU DANGER. Mr. Sheckley collaborated with Roger Zelazny in a three book fantasy series. The titles are BRING ME THE HEAD OF PRINCE CHARMING, IF AT FAUST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, and A FARCE TO BE RECKONED WITH. These books were published by Bantam Spectra. He has written three novels in a humorous private detective series: THE ALTERNATIVE DETECTIVE, DRACONIAN NEW YORK, and SOMA BLUES. Mr. Sheckley's private detective, Hob Draconian, lives in Ibiza, in Spain, but spends a lot of his time in Paris. Mr. Sheckley also worked on the computer game NETRUNNER. He wrote ALIEN HARVEST, number 5 in the Aliens series, licensed by Dark Horse Comics and published by Bantam Books, and THE LAERTIAN GAMBLE, a Deep Space Nine Startrek Novel, published by Pocket Books. Both of these novels appeared on the Locus media-related best seller list. Mr. Sheckley has produced about 65 books to date, including 40 novels
and 9 collections of his short stories. In 1991 he received the Daniel
F. Gallun award for contributions to the genre of science-fiction.
In 1998 he was awarded the Strannik Award in St. Petersburg, Russia,
for contributions to the field of humor and of science-fiction. His
newest science-fiction novel, GODSHOME, was published in January 1999
by Tor Books. Currently, along with other projects, he is publishing
a novel in progress online at: His obituary can be read here. |
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