American speculative fiction writer and editor (born 1935)
Robert Silverberg
(born January 15, 1935) is an American author and editor, best known for writing
science fiction
. He is a multiple winner of both
Hugo
and
Nebula Awards
, a member of the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame
, and a
Grand Master of SF
.
[2]
[3]
[4]
He has attended every
Hugo Award
ceremony since the inaugural event in 1953.
[5]
Biography
[
edit
]
Early years
[
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]
Silverberg was born January 15, 1935,
[6]
to
Jewish
parents in
Brooklyn
, New York.
[7]
A voracious reader since childhood, he began submitting stories to science fiction magazines during his early teenage years. He received a BA in
English Literature
from
Columbia University
, in 1956. While at Columbia, he wrote the juvenile novel
Revolt on Alpha C
(1955), published by
Thomas Y. Crowell
with the cover notice: "A gripping story of outer space".
[1]
He won his first Hugo in 1956 as the "best new writer".
[2]
That year Silverberg was the author or co-author of four of the six stories in the August issue of
Fantastic
, breaking his record set in the previous issue.
[8]
For the next four years, by his own count, he wrote a million words a year, mostly for magazines and
Ace Doubles
. He used his own name as well as a range of pseudonyms during this era, and often worked in collaboration with
Randall Garrett
, who was a neighbor at the time.
[9]
(The Silverberg/Garrett collaborations also used a variety of pseudonyms, the best-known being Robert Randall.) From 1956 to 1959, Silverberg routinely averaged five published stories a month, and he had over 80 stories published in 1958 alone.
In 1959, the market for science fiction slumped due in part to changing tastes among readers, and also due to the bankruptcy of several leading magazines of the era.
[10]
Silverberg adapted by writing copiously to other fields,
[11]
from historical non-fiction to
crime fiction
and
softcore pornography
. "Bob Silverberg, a giant of science fiction... was doing two [books] a month for one publisher, another for a second publisher, and the equivalent of another book for a magazine... He was writing a quarter of a million words a month"
[12]
under many different pseudonyms
[13]
including about 200 erotic novels published as Don Elliott.
[14]
[15]
In a 2000 interview, Silverberg explained that the erotic fiction (published under the
pseudonym
"Don Elliott")
... was undertaken at a time when I was saddled with a huge debt, at the age of 26, for a splendid house that I had bought. There would have been no way to pay the house off by writing science fiction ... so I turned out a slew of quick sex novels. I never concealed the fact that I was doing them; it made no difference at all to me whether people knew or not. It was just a job. And it was, incidentally, a job that I did very well. I think they were outstanding erotic novels.
[16]
Literary growth
[
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]
In the mid-1960s, many writers in science fiction were moving away from the adventure,
hard science fiction
and
space opera
themes that often characterized the early years of the genre, and writing stories with greater literary ambitions, psychological sophistication and experimental methods (see
New Wave science fiction
).
Frederik Pohl
, then editing three science fiction magazines, offered Silverberg creative freedom in writing for them.
[11]
Thus inspired, Silverberg returned to the field that gave him his start, paying far more attention to depth of character development and social background than he had in the past and mixing in elements of the
modernist
literature he had studied at Columbia.
Silverberg continued to write rapidly?
Algis Budrys
reported in 1965 that he wrote and sold at least 50,000 words ("call it the equivalent of a commercial novel") weekly
[13]
?but the novels he wrote in this period are considered superior to his earlier work; Budrys in 1968 wrote of his surprise that "Silverberg is now writing deeply detailed, highly educated, beautifully figured books" like
Thorns
and
The Masks of Time
.
[17]
Perhaps the first book to indicate the new Silverberg was
To Open the Sky
, a
fixup
of stories published by Pohl in
Galaxy Magazine
, in which a new religion helps people reach the stars. That was followed by
Downward to the Earth
, a story containing echoes of material from
Joseph Conrad
's work,
[14]
in which the human former administrator of an alien world returns after the planet's inhabitants have been set free. Other acclaimed works of that time include
To Live Again
, in which the memories and personalities of the deceased can be transferred to other people;
The World Inside
, a look at an overpopulated future; and
Dying Inside
, a tale of a telepath losing his powers.
In the August 1967 issue of
Galaxy
, Silverberg published a 20,000-word novelette called "Hawksbill Station". This story earned Silverberg his first Hugo and Nebula story award nominations.
[18]
An expanded novel form of
Hawksbill Station
was published the following year. In 1969
Nightwings
was awarded the Hugo for best novella. Silverberg won a Nebula award in 1970 for the short story "
Passengers
", two the following year for his novel
A Time of Changes
and the short story "
Good News from the Vatican
", and yet another in 1975 for his novella
Born with the Dead
.
Later developments
[
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]
After suffering through the stresses of a major house fire
[19]
and a
thyroid
malfunction, Silverberg moved from his native
New York City
to the
West Coast
in 1972, and he announced his retirement from writing in 1975.
[20]
In 1980 he returned, however, with
Lord Valentine's Castle
,
[11]
a panoramic adventure set on an alien planet, which has become the basis of the
Majipoor series
?a cycle of stories and novels set on the vast planet Majipoor, a world much larger than Earth and inhabited by no fewer than seven different species of settlers. In a 2015 interview Silverberg said that he did not intend to write any more fiction.
[21]
Silverberg received a Nebula award in 1986 for the novella
Sailing to Byzantium
, which takes its name from
the poem by William Butler Yeats
; a Hugo in 1987 for the novella
Gilgamesh in the Outback
, set in the
Heroes in Hell
universe of
Bangsian Fantasy
; a Hugo in 1990 for
Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another
.
[2]
The
Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame
inducted Silverberg in 1999, its fourth class of two deceased and two living writers,
[3]
and the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
made him its 21st
SFWA Grand Master
in 2005.
[4]
Personal life
[
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]
Silverberg has been married twice. He and Barbara Brown married in 1956, separated in 1976, and divorced a decade later. Silverberg and science fiction writer
Karen Haber
married in 1987.
[22]
They live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
[9]
Before the age of 30, Silverberg was independently wealthy through his investments and once owned the former mansion of New York City Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia
.
[23]
[19]
Awards
[
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]
Hugo Awards
Locus Award
Nebula Awards
- Passengers
(Best Short Story, 1969)
[31]
- A Time of Changes
(Best Novel, 1971)
[32]
- Good News from the Vatican
(Best Short Story, 1971)
[32]
- Born with the Dead
(Best Novella, 1974)
[33]
- Sailing to Byzantium
(Best Novella, 1985)
[34]
- Damon Knight Grand Master Award (2003)
[35]
Bibliography
[
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]
See also
[
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]
Notelist
[
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]
- ^
Silverberg has used numerous pen names for his works.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Robert Silverberg
at the
Internet Speculative Fiction Database
(ISFDB). Retrieved March 26, 2013.
- ^
a
b
c
"Silverberg, Robert"
Archived
October 10, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine
.
The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index to Literary Nominees
.
Locus Publications
. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
- ^
a
b
"Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame"
. Mid American Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions, Inc. Retrieved March 26, 2013. This was the official website of the hall of fame to 2004.
- ^
a
b
"Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master"
Archived
July 1, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Retrieved March 26, 2013.
- ^
"Alfies Awards"
.
Locus Online News
. 2013
. Retrieved
February 14,
2017
.
- ^
Orndorff, Patrick (January 15, 2010).
"Happy Birthday Robert Silverberg!"
.
Wired
. Retrieved
January 15,
2024
.
- ^
"Robert Silverberg"
.
Contemporary Literary Criticism Select
. Gale, Cengage Learning. 2008
. Retrieved
February 3,
2017
.
- ^
Silverberg, Robert (2006).
"Guardian of the Crystal Gate"
.
In the Beginning: Tales from the Pulp Era
(Introduction). Subterranean.
ISBN
978-1596060432
.
- ^
a
b
Horwich, About David (December 11, 2000).
"Interview: Robert Silverberg"
.
Strange Horizons
. Retrieved
December 24,
2016
.
- ^
See Silverberg's afterword to the 2012 re-print of his 1959 crime novella
Blood on the Mink
(Hard Case Crime, ISBN 0857687689
- ^
a
b
c
Latham, Rob (September 18, 2020).
"Man in the Maze: A Conversation with Robert Silverberg"
.
Los Angeles Review of Books
.
- ^
Child, Lee (October 12, 2016).
"Lee Child: Celebrating mystery fiction master MacDonald"
. BBC
. Retrieved
October 12,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Budrys, Algis (December 1965). "Galaxy Bookshelf".
Galaxy Science Fiction
. pp. 147?156.
- ^
a
b
"Authors: Silverberg, Robert"
.
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
. November 4, 2016
. Retrieved
December 24,
2016
.
- ^
"Don Elliott"
. Stark House Press
. Retrieved
November 22,
2019
.
- ^
Horwich, David (December 11, 2000).
"Interview: Robert Silverberg"
.
Strange Horizons
. Retrieved
January 21,
2020
.
- ^
Budrys, Algis (December 1968).
"Galaxy Bookshelf"
.
Galaxy Science Fiction
. pp. 149?155.
- ^
Silverberg, Robert (1968).
Hawksbill Station
, Berkley, p. 3
- ^
a
b
"Galaxy's Stars"
.
Galaxy Science Fiction
. September 1968. p. 194.
- ^
"ROBERT SILVERBERG PAPERS"
.
University of Southern Mississippi
. January 15, 1935
. Retrieved
June 18,
2019
.
- ^
R, Dag (July 31, 2015).
"Robert Silverberg Interview"
.
SFFWorld
. Retrieved
June 17,
2019
.
- ^
"Authors : Haber, Karen : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia"
.
sf-encyclopedia.com
. Retrieved
June 17,
2019
.
- ^
Dirda, Michael (November 8, 2016).
"Robert Silverberg: The Philip Roth of the science fiction world"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
November 14,
2016
.
- ^
"1956 Hugo Awards"
.
The Hugo Awards
. July 26, 2007
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"1969 Hugo Awards"
.
The Hugo Awards
. July 26, 2007
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"1987 Hugo Awards"
.
The Hugo Awards
. July 24, 2015
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"1990 Hugo Awards"
.
The Hugo Awards
. July 26, 2007
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"Locus Awards 1975"
.
Science Fiction Awards Database
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"Locus Awards 1981"
.
Science Fiction Awards Database
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"Locus Awards 1988"
.
Science Fiction Awards Database
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"1969 Nebula Awards"
.
Nebula Awards
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
"1971 Nebula Awards"
.
Nebula Awards
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"1974 Nebula Awards"
.
Nebula Awards
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"1985 Nebula Awards"
.
Nebula Awards
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"2003 Nebula Awards"
.
Nebula Awards
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Sandra Miesel
, "Dreams Within Dreams" in
Darrell Schweitzer
(ed.).
Exploring Fantasy Worlds: Essays on Fantastic Literature
. San Bernardino, CA:
Borgo Press
, April 1985, pp. 35?42. (On the novel
Son of Man
.)
External links
[
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]
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Novels
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Short story collections
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Anthologies edited
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Non-fiction
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1980
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1981
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1982
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1983
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1984
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1985
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1986
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1987
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1988
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1989
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1966?1980
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1981?2000
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2001?2020
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2021?present
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Editors
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Writers
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Artists
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Related
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International
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National
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Other
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