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Damon Knight

December 26, 2022

Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He is the author of "To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for The Twilight Zone.[2] He was married to fellow writer Kate Wilhelm.

Damon Knight
BornDamon Francis Knight
(1922-09-19)September 19, 1922
Baker City, Oregon, United States
DiedApril 15, 2002(2002-04-15) (aged 79)
Eugene, Oregon, United States
Pen nameConanight, Stuart Fleming[a]
Occupation
  • Author
  • editor
  • critic
NationalityAmerican
Period1940–2002
GenreScience fiction, primarily short stories
Spouse
​
(m. 1963)​
Website
damonknightlibrary.com
Knight's novella "The Earth Quarter" was the cover story of the January 1955 issue of If
Knight's novella "The Visitor at the Zoo" took the cover of the April 1963 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction

Biography

Knight was born in Baker City, Oregon in 1922, and grew up in Hood River, Oregon. He entered science-fiction fandom at the age of eleven and published two issues of a fanzine titled Snide.[3]

Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories.[4] His first story, "The Itching Hour", appeared in the Summer 1940 number of Futuria Fantasia, edited and published by Ray Bradbury.[1] "Resilience" followed in the February 1941 number of Stirring Science Stories, edited by Donald A. Wollheim.[1] An editorial error made the latter story's ending incomprehensible;[5] it was reprinted in a 1978 magazine in four pages with a two-page introduction by Knight.[1]

At the time of his first story sale he was living in New York and was a member of the Futurians.[6] One of his short stories describes paranormal disruption of a science fiction fan group and contains cameo appearances of various Futurians and others under thinly-disguised names; for instance, non-Futurian SF writer H. Beam Piper is identified as "H. Dreyne Fifer".

Knight's forte was the short story; he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.[7] To the general public he is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for The Twilight Zone.[2] It won a 50-year Retro-Hugo in 2001 as the best short story of 1950.[8] Knight was also a science fiction critic, a career which began when he wrote in 1945 that A. E. van Vogt "is not a giant as often maintained. He's only a pygmy who has learned to operate an overgrown typewriter."[3] He ceased reviewing when Fantasy & Science Fiction refused to publish his review of Judith Merril's novel The Tomorrow People.[9][10] These reviews were later collected in In Search of Wonder.[6]

Algis Budrys wrote that Knight and "William Atheling Jr." (James Blish) had "transformed the reviewer's trade in the field",[11] in Knight's case "without the guidance of his own prior example".[9] The term "idiot plot", a story that only functions because almost everyone in it is an idiot, became well known through Knight's frequent use of it in his reviews, though he believed the term was probably invented by Blish.[12] Knight's only non-Retro-Hugo Award was for "Best Reviewer" in 1956.[8]

Knight was the founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA),[13] cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation,[14] cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop,[15] and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop.[16] The SFWA officers and past presidents named Knight its 13th Grand Master in 1994 (presented 1995). After his death, the associated award was renamed the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award in his honor.[8][6][17] The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2003.[18]

Until his death, Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his second wife, author Kate Wilhelm.[19] His papers are held in the University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archive.[20]

Selected works

Main article: Damon Knight bibliography

Novels

Short stories and other writings

  • "The Third Little Green Man" (1948)
  • "PS's Feature Flash" (1948)
  • "Not with a Bang" (1949)
  • "To Serve Man" (1950)
  • "Ask Me Anything" (1951)
  • "Don't Live in the Past" (1951)
  • "Cabin Boy" (1951)
  • "Catch that Martian" (1952)
  • "The Analogues" (1952)
  • "Beachcomber" (1952)
  • "Ticket to Anywhere" (1952)
  • "Anachron" (1953)
  • "Babel II" (1953)
  • "Four in One" (1953)
  • "Special Delivery" (1953)
  • "Natural State" (1954)
  • "Rule Golden" (1954)
  • "The Country of the Kind" (1955)
  • "Dulcie and Decorum" (1955)
  • "You're Another" (1955)
  • "This way to the Regress (1956)
  • "Extempore" (1956)
  • "The Last Word" (1956)
  • "Stranger Station" (1956)
  • "Dio" (1957)
  • "The Dying Man" (1957)
  • "An Eye for a What?" (1957)
  • "The Enemy" (1958)
  • "Be My Guest" (1958)
  • "Eripmav" (1958)
  • "Idiot Stick" (1958)
  • "Thing of Beauty" (1958)
  • "To Be Continued" (1959)
  • "The Handler" (1960)
  • "Time Enough" (1960)
  • "Auto-Da-Fe" (1961)
  • A Century of Science Fiction (1962) (editor)
  • "The Visitor at the Zoo" (1963)
  • "The Big Pat Boom" (1963)
  • "An Ancient Madness" (1964)
  • God's Nose (1964)
  • Maid to Measure (1964)
  • "Shall the Dust Praise Thee?" (1967)
  • "Masks'" (1968)
  • "The Star Below" (1968)
  • I See You (1976)
  • Forever (1981)
  • O (1983)
  • Point of View (1985) (Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg)
  • Strangers on Paradise (1986)
  • Not a Creature (1993)
  • Fortyday (1994)
  • Life Edit (1996)
  • "Double Meaning"
  • "In the Beginning"

Literary criticism and analysis

  • In Search of Wonder (1956) (collected reviews and critical pieces)
  • Creating Short Fiction (1981) (advice on writing short stories)
  • Turning Points (editor/contributor: critical anthology)
  • Orbit (editor)
  • The Futurians (1977, memoir/history)

Short story collections

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Futurians Chester Cohen and Knight used the name Conanight jointly for two 1942 illustrations. Knight wrote three 1943–1944 short stories as Stuart Fleming.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Damon Knight at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB). Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  2. ^ a b Stanyard, Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone, p. 51.
  3. ^ a b Battistella, Edwin. "Damon Knight (1922-2002)". The Oregon Encyclopedia. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  4. ^ Knight, "Knight Piece," Brian W. Aldiss & Harry Harrison, Hell's Cartographers, Orbit Books, 1976, p. 105.
  5. ^ Pohl, SFWA Grand Masters Volume Three, p. 202.
  6. ^ a b c "Damon Knight". Gollancz/SFE Ltd. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  7. ^ Malzberg, Barry N., ed. (1976). The Best of Damon Knight. Nelson Doubleday.
  8. ^ a b c . The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index to Literary Nominees. Locus Publications. Archived from the original on 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  9. ^ a b Budrys, Algis (December 1967). "Galaxy Bookshelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 187–194.
  10. ^ Knight, Damon (2016). "Author's Notes; To the Second Edition". In Search of Wonder: Essays on Modern Science Fiction (3rd ed.). Golden, Colorado: ReAnimus Press. pp. 20, 260. ISBN 9781539833697. I resigned as F&SF's book reviewer in 1960 because the then editor, now my agent and a good friend, declined to publish one of my reviews as written. (The review in question appears here for the first time, in Chapter 10 [The Tomorrow People].)
  11. ^ Budrys, Algis (June 1965). "Galaxy Bookshelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 164–169.
  12. ^ Gary K. Wolfe, "Coming to Terms", in Gunn & Candelaria, Speculations on Speculation, p. 18.
  13. ^ . Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  14. ^ . The National Fantasy Fan Federation. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  15. ^ "Milford History". Milford Speculative Fiction Writers. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  16. ^ "Robin Scott Wilson". Gollancz/SFE Ltd. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  17. ^ . Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Archived from the original on 2013-03-08. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  18. ^ . Mid American Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions, Inc. Archived from the original on May 21, 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-22. This was the official website of the hall of fame to 2004
  19. ^ "Damon Knight, 79, Writer and Editor of Science Fiction, Dies". The New York Times. 17 April 2002.
  20. ^ "Celebrating CSWS 40th with the le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship". 7 July 2013.

Sources

  • Aldiss, Brian W.; Harrison, Harry (1976). Hell's Cartographers. London: Futura. ISBN 0-86007-907-4.
  • Gunn, James E.; Candelaria, Matthew (2005). Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4902-X.
  • Pohl, Frederik (2002). The SFWA Grand Masters. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-86876-6.
  • Stanyard, Stewart T. (2006). Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone: A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series. Chicago: ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-744-4.

External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Damon Knight.

December 26, 2022
damon, knight, damon, francis, knight, september, 1922, april, 2002, american, science, fiction, author, editor, critic, author, serve, 1950, short, story, adapted, twilight, zone, married, fellow, writer, kate, wilhelm, borndamon, francis, knight, 1922, septe. Damon Francis Knight September 19 1922 April 15 2002 was an American science fiction author editor and critic He is the author of To Serve Man a 1950 short story adapted for The Twilight Zone 2 He was married to fellow writer Kate Wilhelm Damon KnightBornDamon Francis Knight 1922 09 19 September 19 1922Baker City Oregon United StatesDiedApril 15 2002 2002 04 15 aged 79 Eugene Oregon United StatesPen nameConanight Stuart Fleming a OccupationAuthor editor criticNationalityAmericanPeriod1940 2002GenreScience fiction primarily short storiesSpouseKate Wilhelm m 1963 wbr Websitedamonknightlibrary wbr comKnight s novella The Earth Quarter was the cover story of the January 1955 issue of If Knight s novella The Visitor at the Zoo took the cover of the April 1963 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction Contents 1 Biography 2 Selected works 2 1 Novels 2 2 Short stories and other writings 2 3 Literary criticism and analysis 2 4 Short story collections 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 Sources 7 External linksBiography EditKnight was born in Baker City Oregon in 1922 and grew up in Hood River Oregon He entered science fiction fandom at the age of eleven and published two issues of a fanzine titled Snide 3 Knight s first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science fiction magazine Amazing Stories 4 His first story The Itching Hour appeared in the Summer 1940 number of Futuria Fantasia edited and published by Ray Bradbury 1 Resilience followed in the February 1941 number of Stirring Science Stories edited by Donald A Wollheim 1 An editorial error made the latter story s ending incomprehensible 5 it was reprinted in a 1978 magazine in four pages with a two page introduction by Knight 1 At the time of his first story sale he was living in New York and was a member of the Futurians 6 One of his short stories describes paranormal disruption of a science fiction fan group and contains cameo appearances of various Futurians and others under thinly disguised names for instance non Futurian SF writer H Beam Piper is identified as H Dreyne Fifer Knight s forte was the short story he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre 7 To the general public he is best known as the author of To Serve Man a 1950 short story adapted for The Twilight Zone 2 It won a 50 year Retro Hugo in 2001 as the best short story of 1950 8 Knight was also a science fiction critic a career which began when he wrote in 1945 that A E van Vogt is not a giant as often maintained He s only a pygmy who has learned to operate an overgrown typewriter 3 He ceased reviewing when Fantasy amp Science Fiction refused to publish his review of Judith Merril s novel The Tomorrow People 9 10 These reviews were later collected in In Search of Wonder 6 Algis Budrys wrote that Knight and William Atheling Jr James Blish had transformed the reviewer s trade in the field 11 in Knight s case without the guidance of his own prior example 9 The term idiot plot a story that only functions because almost everyone in it is an idiot became well known through Knight s frequent use of it in his reviews though he believed the term was probably invented by Blish 12 Knight s only non Retro Hugo Award was for Best Reviewer in 1956 8 Knight was the founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America SFWA 13 cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation 14 cofounder of the Milford Writer s Workshop 15 and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop 16 The SFWA officers and past presidents named Knight its 13th Grand Master in 1994 presented 1995 After his death the associated award was renamed the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award in his honor 8 6 17 The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2003 18 Until his death Knight lived in Eugene Oregon with his second wife author Kate Wilhelm 19 His papers are held in the University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archive 20 Selected works EditMain article Damon Knight bibliography Novels Edit Hell s Pavement 1955 A for Anything 1961 original version titled The People Maker 1959 Masters of Evolution 1959 The Sun Saboteurs 1961 Beyond the Barrier 1964 Mind Switch 1965 Double Meaning 1965 The Earth Quarter 1970 World without Children 1970 The World and Thorinn 1980 The Man in the Tree 1984 CV 1985 The Observers 1988 A Reasonable World 1991 God s Nose 1991 Why Do Birds 1992 Humpty Dumpty An Oval 1996 Short stories and other writings Edit The Third Little Green Man 1948 PS s Feature Flash 1948 Not with a Bang 1949 To Serve Man 1950 Ask Me Anything 1951 Don t Live in the Past 1951 Cabin Boy 1951 Catch that Martian 1952 The Analogues 1952 Beachcomber 1952 Ticket to Anywhere 1952 Anachron 1953 Babel II 1953 Four in One 1953 Special Delivery 1953 Natural State 1954 Rule Golden 1954 The Country of the Kind 1955 Dulcie and Decorum 1955 You re Another 1955 This way to the Regress 1956 Extempore 1956 The Last Word 1956 Stranger Station 1956 Dio 1957 The Dying Man 1957 An Eye for a What 1957 The Enemy 1958 Be My Guest 1958 Eripmav 1958 Idiot Stick 1958 Thing of Beauty 1958 To Be Continued 1959 The Handler 1960 Time Enough 1960 Auto Da Fe 1961 A Century of Science Fiction 1962 editor The Visitor at the Zoo 1963 The Big Pat Boom 1963 An Ancient Madness 1964 God s Nose 1964 Maid to Measure 1964 Shall the Dust Praise Thee 1967 Masks 1968 The Star Below 1968 I See You 1976 Forever 1981 O 1983 Point of View 1985 Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg Strangers on Paradise 1986 Not a Creature 1993 Fortyday 1994 Life Edit 1996 Double Meaning In the Beginning Literary criticism and analysis Edit In Search of Wonder 1956 collected reviews and critical pieces Creating Short Fiction 1981 advice on writing short stories Turning Points editor contributor critical anthology Orbit editor The Futurians 1977 memoir history Short story collections Edit Far Out 1961 contains To Serve Man In Deep 1963 contains The Country of the Kind Off Center 1965 contains Be My Guest Turning On 1966 See also EditPortal Science fictionNotes Edit Futurians Chester Cohen and Knight used the name Conanight jointly for two 1942 illustrations Knight wrote three 1943 1944 short stories as Stuart Fleming 1 References Edit a b c d Damon Knight at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database ISFDB Retrieved 2013 04 04 a b Stanyard Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone p 51 a b Battistella Edwin Damon Knight 1922 2002 The Oregon Encyclopedia Retrieved 31 July 2012 Knight Knight Piece Brian W Aldiss amp Harry Harrison Hell s Cartographers Orbit Books 1976 p 105 Pohl SFWA Grand Masters Volume Three p 202 a b c Damon Knight Gollancz SFE Ltd Retrieved 15 October 2011 Malzberg Barry N ed 1976 The Best of Damon Knight Nelson Doubleday a b c Knight Damon The Locus Index to SF Awards Index to Literary Nominees Locus Publications Archived from the original on 2012 10 16 Retrieved 2013 04 04 a b Budrys Algis December 1967 Galaxy Bookshelf Galaxy Science Fiction pp 187 194 Knight Damon 2016 Author s Notes To the Second Edition In Search of Wonder Essays on Modern Science Fiction 3rd ed Golden Colorado ReAnimus Press pp 20 260 ISBN 9781539833697 I resigned as F amp SF s book reviewer in 1960 because the then editor now my agent and a good friend declined to publish one of my reviews as written The review in question appears here for the first time in Chapter 10 The Tomorrow People Budrys Algis June 1965 Galaxy Bookshelf Galaxy Science Fiction pp 164 169 Gary K Wolfe Coming to Terms in Gunn amp Candelaria Speculations on Speculation p 18 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America History and Statistics Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc Archived from the original on 3 October 2011 Retrieved 1 October 2011 The History of N3F The National Fantasy Fan Federation Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 Retrieved 1 October 2011 Milford History Milford Speculative Fiction Writers Retrieved 1 October 2011 Robin Scott Wilson Gollancz SFE Ltd Retrieved 15 October 2011 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America SFWA Archived from the original on 2013 03 08 Retrieved 2013 04 04 Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame Mid American Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions Inc Archived from the original on May 21 2013 Retrieved 2013 03 22 This was the official website of the hall of fame to 2004 Damon Knight 79 Writer and Editor of Science Fiction Dies The New York Times 17 April 2002 Celebrating CSWS 40th with the le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship 7 July 2013 Sources EditAldiss Brian W Harrison Harry 1976 Hell s Cartographers London Futura ISBN 0 86007 907 4 Gunn James E Candelaria Matthew 2005 Speculations on Speculation Theories of Science Fiction Lanham MD Scarecrow Press ISBN 0 8108 4902 X Pohl Frederik 2002 The SFWA Grand Masters Vol 3 New York Macmillan ISBN 0 312 86876 6 Stanyard Stewart T 2006 Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone A Backstage Tribute to Television s Groundbreaking Series Chicago ECW Press ISBN 978 1 55022 744 4 External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to Damon Knight Damon Knight Official Website Works by Damon Knight at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Damon Knight at Internet Archive Works by Damon Knight at LibriVox public domain audiobooks Damon Knight biography Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame Damon Knight at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Damon Knight papers Syracuse University Obituary SFWA April 17 2002 Archived from the original on 2011 08 11 Obituary News Log Locus April 15 2002 Complete obituary follows in May issue Damon Knight at Library of Congress Authorities with 60 catalog records Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Damon Knight amp oldid 1126520362, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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