Charles L. Harness

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Charles Leonard Harness (born December 29, 1915 in Colorado City , Texas ; died September 20, 2005 in North Newton , Kansas ) was an American science fiction writer.

Life

Harness was the son of Conrad T. and Lillian B. Harness. After a broken off theology studies at Texas Christian University , he studied law at George Washington University in Washington, DC , where he made his bachelor's degree in 1942 and was admitted to the bar in 1946. From 1941 to 1947 he worked for the United States Bureau of Mines in Washington, then as a patent attorney for the American Cyanamid Company in Stamford , Connecticut, and from 1953 to 1981 for WR Grace and Company in Columbia , Maryland .

In 1938 he married Nell W. Harness, with whom he had a daughter and a son.

In 1948 Harness published his first SF short story Time Trap in Astounding magazine , a story about time travel and changing the past, which would also be a frequent topic in Harness' subsequent works, for example in the novel The Paradox Men (1953), the based on the story Flight into Yesterday , published in 1949 : In the 22nd century, an amnesia traveler fights against a tyrant with a dagger and a sword. Similar to Frank Herbert after him in Dune, there are body armor that protect against fast-moving projectiles, but not against relatively slow-moving blades, which means that daring sword fights and the dramatic duel with the blade have a future in this future. The novel was included by David Pringle in his compilation of the Top 100 Science Fiction Novels in 1985 . He calls it "one of the classic trash novels of American magazine science fiction", but then places it above the works of the much better known AE van Vogt , with whom Harness is often compared.

Harness was only a sideline writer, his full-time work as a patent attorney until his retirement in 1981, which is also reflected in some of his works, for example in the short stories Improbable Profession (1952, together with Theodore L. Thomas ) and Probable Cause (1968) and in the novels The Venetian Court (1982) and Lunar Justice (1991).

Harness died in 2005 at the age of 89.

bibliography

Novels
  • The Paradox Men (1953, based on Flight into Yesterday , 1949)
  • The Ring of Ritornel (1968)
    • German: Death row inmate Earth. Heyne SF&F # 3209, 1970.
  • Wolfhead (1977, 1978 book)
  • The Catalyst (1980)
  • Firebird (1981)
  • The Venetian Court (1982)
  • Redworld (1986)
  • Krono (1988)
  • Lurid Dreams (1990)
  • Lunar Justice (1991)
  • Drunkard's Endgame (1999)
  • Cybele, With Bluebonnets (2002)
  • The Professional Approach (2007, with Theodore L. Thomas)
Collections
  • The Rose (1966, short stories)
  • An Ornament to His Profession (1998, short stories)
  • Rings (1999, contains the novels The Paradox Men , The Ring of Ritornel , Firebird and Drunkard's Endgame )
Short story series

Conrad Patrick

  • An Ornament to His Profession (1966)
  • The Alchemist (1966)
  • Polly (2004)

Patent Office

  • That Professional Look (1954, with Theodore L. Thomas, as Leonard Lockhard)

Quentin Thomas, Patent Lawyer

  • The Venetian Court (1981)
  • H-Tec (1981)
    • German: H-TEK. In: Hans Joachim Alpers (Ed.): Analog 2. Moewig Science Fiction # 3559, 1982, ISBN 3-8118-3559-9 .

The Jaquino Gates

  • The Terraformers (1999)
  • Red Skies (2000)
Short stories
  • Time Trap (1948)
  • Fruits of the Agathon (1948)
  • Flight into Yesterday (1949)
  • Stalemate in Space (1949, also called Stalemate in Time , 1966)
  • Heritage (1950)
  • Even Steven (1950)
  • The New Reality (1950)
    • German: The new being. In: Hans Joachim Alpers, Werner Fuchs: The Fifties I. Edition SF in Hohenheim Verlag, 1971, ISBN 3-8147-0010-4 .
  • A Thesis for Branderbrook (1951)
  • Improbable Profession (1952, with Theodore L. Thomas, as Leonard Lockhard)
  • The Poisoner (1952)
  • The Call of the Black Lagoon (1953)
  • The Rose (1953)
  • Child by Chronos (1953)
  • The Chessplayers (1953)
  • Bugs (1967)
  • The Million Year Patent (1967)
  • Probable Cause (1968)
  • Bookmobile (1968)
  • The Araqnid Window (1974)
  • Quarks at Appomattox (1983)
  • The Fall of Robin Arms (1984)
    • English: The Fall of the Robin Arms. In: Ronald M. Hahn : Kryogenese. Heyne SF&F # 4169, 1985, 3-453-31131-0.
  • Summer Solstice (1984)
  • The Cajamarca Project (1985)
  • O Lyric Love (1985)
  • George Washington Slept Here (1985)
  • Biofeedbach (1985)
  • The Picture by Dora Gray (1986)
  • Signals (1987)
  • The Lab Assistant (1994, with Shiloh Erin Cullen, as Erin Leonard)
  • The Tetrahedron (1994)
  • 1894 (1994)
  • The Flag on Gorbachev Crater (1997)
  • Lethary Fair (1998)
  • The Guac Bug (1998)
  • The downsizing of Dr. Jain (1998)
  • A Boost in Time (2000)
  • The Money Tree (2000)
  • Playmate (2000)
  • The Perfumed Heart (2000)
  • The Dome (2001)
  • Passkey (2001)
  • Our Man in Pluvia (2002)
  • Station Ganymede (2002)
  • Voices (2002)
  • The Melkart Coin (2003)
  • The Thalatta Thesis (2003)
  • Faces (2003)
  • In the Catacombs (2004)
  • Set (2006)
  • Venice — Rome — Direttissima (2006)
Non-fiction
  • Mining and Marketing of Barite (1946, with FM Barsigian)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Harness, Charles L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harness, Charles Leonard (full name); Lockhard, Leonard (pseudonym); Leonard, Erin (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Colorado City , Texas
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 2005
Place of death North Newton , Kansas