'Traitor to the Living' was my introduction to his works.
Brent "B. Smith" <daikaij...@yahoo.com> writes: >He was one of the first sci-fi authors I got into. I loved >Riverworld, The World of Tiers, Venus on the Half Shell, Dark Is The >Sun and his Tarzan pastiches like A Feast Unknown and Lord Tyger. His >pulp hero biographies were awesome as well. > >His mystery Nothing Burns In Hell is worth tracking down as well. It >was great to see his hometown Peoria get treated like Sin City. > >R.I.P. > >--- In [ mailto:scifinoir2%40yahoogroups.com ]scifino...@yahoogroups.com, >"Amy Harlib" <ahar...@...> wrote: >> >> >> ahar...@... >> Philip Jos Farmer dies >> >> >> A real shame. >> >> >> >> Author Philip Jos Farmer Dies >> ([ http://sfscope.com/2009/02/author-philip-jos-farmer-dies.html >]http://sfscope.com/2009/02/author-philip-jos-farmer-dies.html) >> >> By Ian Randal Strock >> February 25, 2009 >> >> Philip Jos Farmer's web site reports the death of the author >> peacefully in his sleep in the morning of 25 February 2009. Born 26 >> January 1918 in Terre Haute, Indiana, Farmer won three Hugo Awards >> (Most Promising New Talent, 1953; Best Novella ["Riders of the >Purple >> Wage"], 1968; and Best Novel [To Your Scattered Bodies Go], 1972), >the >> Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Grand Master Award >> (2001), and the World Fantasy Award's Lifetime Achievement Award >> (2001). >> >> Farmer's first short story, "O'Brien and Obrenov", appeared in >> Adventure in March 1946. In 1950, after a twelve-year hiatus (and a >> break to wash out of the Army Air Corps flight training program), he >> received his BA in English from Bradley University. In August 1952, >> Startling Stories published his first science fiction story, "The >> Lovers". >> >> Farmer's first published novel was The Green Odyssey, which >Ballantine >> released in 1957. In 1953, however, Farmer's I Owe for the Flesh won >> the Shasta prize novel contest. And though the prize was never paid, >> the book was the first in what would become his iconic Riverworld >> series. That series posits that "everyone who has ever lived on >Earth, >> from cavemen to 1984, is resurrected along the banks of a million >mile >> long river. A character dying along the river simply wakes up >> somewhere else the next day." In these stories, Farmer has >characters >> from any point in history meeting, interacting, and frequently >> fighting. >> >> Farmer also wrote the Dayworld series, in which overpopulation >> requires that people be placed in suspended animation for six days >out >> of seven, each living but one day, and sharing their homes, jobs, >and >> lives with six other people. Then, of course, there are daybreakers, >> who live different lives each day of the week. And his World of >Tiers >> series introduced the idea of Pocket Universes, which have different >> physical laws. >> >> In the 1970s, when Farmer was suffering from writer's block, he >turned >> his efforts to writing other people's novels; specifically, he wrote >> Venus on the Half-Shell by Kurt Vonnegut's fictional Kilgore Trout. >He >> also wrote as Ralph vvon Wau Wau, who came to life on his own when >> Spider Robinson had him appear in Callahan's Bar. >> >> Farmer is survived by his wife, Bette (whom he married in 1941), as >> well as children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. >>