David I. Masson

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David Irvine Masson (born November 6, 1915 in Edinburgh ; died February 25, 2007 in Leeds , West Yorkshire ) was a British science fiction writer and librarian .

Life

Masson came from a family of great scholars and intellectuals. Both his father and grandfather were professors of chemistry, and his great-grandfather was the Scottish literary scholar and Milton biographer David Masson . An academic career was mapped out for the young Masson. After attending the Oundle School in Northamptonshire , Masson studied English literature at Merton College , Oxford , where he made his bachelor's degree in 1937 and graduated with a master's degree in 1941 . In 1939 he had started working as a library assistant at the University of Leeds . During World War II, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps , mostly in North Africa and Italy. After the war he worked as a librarian at the University of Liverpool , and in 1956 he returned to Leeds, where he became the custodian of the Brotherton Collection , the collection that goes back to the industrialist and politician Edward Brotherton and forms the core of the new Leeds University Library. In 1979 Masson retired there. Since 1950 he was married to Olive Newton. One daughter and three grandchildren came from the marriage.

As a library scholar, he published two collection catalogs; as an English studies graduate, he dealt with questions of poetics and prosody , especially using the example of Rainer Maria Rilke , and published numerous articles in this area as well as a monograph in which he examined the role of sound patterns in poetry. He also contributed to the 1965 edition of the Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics .

But Masson is especially important and remembered as a science fiction writer. Although he has not written a novel and only written 10 short stories in total, these were so unique in their time and for the authors of the New Wave in British science fiction, who grouped around Michael Moorcock and the magazine New Worlds - including Massons Stories appeared - so exemplary that this narrow work was enough to guarantee Masson a permanent position. The first seven stories appeared in 1968, collected in The Caltraps of Time (German as An den Grenz der Zeit ), in 2003 a new edition was published that was supplemented by the three stories that appeared later.

When it was published in September 1965, the story Traveller's Rest about a senseless war in a landscape characterized by relativistic distortions of time made a special impression . Again and again it was found that each of Masson's stories was unique in type and concept - even if the treatment of time travel and time issues is a focus - and each had its own tone. The spectrum ranges from Traveller's Rest , the dark story from the border areas of physics and psychology, to satire or the skilful pastiche in A Two-Timer , which is written entirely in the English of an involuntary time traveler from the 17th century.

bibliography

collection
  • The Caltraps of Time (1968, expanded new edition 2003)
Short stories
  • Traveller's Rest (1965). German translations:
    • At the time limit. Translated by Alfred Joseph. In: Robert Silverberg (ed.): The murderers of Mohammeds. Marion von Schröder (Science Fiction & Fantastica), 1970.
    • Vacation from the front. Translated by Dolf Strasser. In: Science-Fiction-Stories 60. Ullstein (Ullstein 2000 # 115 (3250)), 1976, ISBN 3-548-03250-8 .
    • On the time front. In: Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs (eds.): The Sixties II. Hohenheim (Edition SF in Hohenheim Verlag), 1984, ISBN 3-8147-0037-6 .
    • Detachment. Translated by Walter Brumm. In: Karl Michael Armer , Wolfgang Jeschke (Hrsg.): Die Fussangeln der Zeit. Heyne (Library of Science Fiction Literature # 28), 1984, ISBN 3-453-31019-5 .
    • On the time front. In: At the frontiers of time. 1984.
  • Lost Ground (1966)
    • German: Lost Ground. In: At the frontiers of time. 1984.
  • Mouth of Hell (1966)
    • German: Maw of Hell. In: At the frontiers of time. 1984.
  • A Two-Timer (1966)
    • English: rice through two times. In: Karl Michael Armer, Wolfgang Jeschke (Hrsg.): Die Fussangeln der Zeit. Heyne (Library of Science Fiction Literature # 28), 1984, ISBN 3-453-31019-5 . Also as: family friend from the day before yesterday. In: At the frontiers of time. 1984.
  • Psychosmosis (1966)
    • German: Psychosmosis. In: At the frontiers of time. 1984.
  • The Transfinite Choice (1966)
    • German: The infinite choice. In: At the frontiers of time. 1984.
  • Not So Certain (1967)
    • German: Less sure. In: At the frontiers of time. 1984.
  • The Show Must Go On (1970)
    • German: The Show Must Go On. In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): Papa Godzilla. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 4560), 1989, ISBN 3-453-03152-0 .
  • Take It Or Leave It (1970)
    • German: heads or tails. In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): Mondaugen. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 4660), 1990, ISBN 3-453-03914-9 .
  • Doctor Fausta (1974)
    • German: Doctor Fausta. In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): The lead of time. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 4803), 1991, ISBN 3-453-04996-9 .
Non-fiction
  • Hand-List of Incunabula in the University Library, Liverpool. Private print, 1948. Supplement, 1955.
  • Catalog of the Romany Collection formed by DU McGrigor Phillips, LL. D., and presented to the University of Leeds. Nelson, Edinburgh 1962.
  • Poetic Sound-Patterning Reconsidered. Philosophical and Literary Society, Leeds 1976.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Masson, David I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Masson, David Irvine (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British science fiction writer and librarian
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 2007
Place of death Leeds , West Yorkshire