John Boyd (Author)

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John Boyd (actually Boyd Bradfield Upchurch ; born October 3, 1919 in Atlanta , Georgia ; died June 8, 2013 there ) was an American science fiction writer.

Life

Upchurch was the son of railroad worker Ivie Doss Upchurch and Margarete Blake, née Barnes. His parents were from England, where he also served in the Navy during World War II . In 1944 he married Fern Gillaspy Lorts. After the end of the war, he graduated from the University of Southern California in 1947 and then worked at Star Engravings until 1970 , after which he was a freelance writer.

In 1968 he published a historical novel under his real name with the newly founded publishing house Weybright & Talley and at the same time a science fiction novel. Without his help, the SF novel was published by the publisher under the pseudonym John Boyd, which Upchurch used from then on for its SF novels. By 1979, 11 of them were published, as well as the historical novel mentioned and Scarborough Hall (1976), a southern ghost story, and, together with the politician Richard Howard Ichord, the book Behind Every Bush: Treason or Patriotism? (1979) on Ichord's time as Chairman of the Committee on Un-American Activities .

Boyd's best-known book is his SF debut, The Last Starship from Earth (1968), published in German translation in 1978 under the title Der Überläufer . The world depicted in the novel initially appears to be a kind of dystopian future world, dominated by an overpowering church in which heretics are banished to the planet "hell". It then turns out to be an alternate world where Jesus was not crucified when he was 33, but lived and had time to plant a church. There is a caste system headed by clergy and scholars. Mixed marriages between members of different castes are prohibited. When the protagonist , the son of a scientist, falls in love with an art student, he is shipped to “Hell”. There he is sent by the residents by means of a time machine into the age of Jesus, where he ensures that the course of history known to us is realized. Having become immortal, from then on he haunted the centuries as the “ Eternal Jew ”.

The novel met with a positive response from critics. Robert A. Heinlein considered it "the best anti-utopia and the strongest satire on the trends in our society since 1984 ".

bibliography

Novels

Unless otherwise noted, the works below are science fiction novels.

  • The Last Starship from Earth (1968)
    • German: The defector. Translated by Heinz Plehn. Droemer Knaur (Knaur Science Fiction & Fantasy # 706), 1978, ISBN 3-426-05706-9 .
  • as Boyd Upchurch: The Slave Stealer (historical novel, 1968)
  • The Pollinators of Eden (1969)
    • English: The Sirens of Flora. Translated by Joachim Pente. Droemer Knaur (Knaur Science Fiction & Fantasy # 5746), 1982, ISBN 3-426-05746-8 .
  • The Rakehells of Heaven (1969)
  • Sex and the High Command (1970)
  • The Organ Bank Farm (1970)
  • The Doomsday Gene (1972)
    • English: The black card index. Translated by Klaus Weidemann. Ullstein Science Fiction & Fantasy # 31022, 1981, ISBN 3-548-31022-2 .
  • The IQ Merchant (1972)
  • The Gorgon Festival (1972)
  • Andromeda Gun (1974)
    • English: The Andromeda Gunman. Translated by Bodo Baumann. Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 3879, 1982, ISBN 3-453-30766-6 .
  • Barnard's Planet (1975)
  • as Boyd Upchurch: Scarborough Hall (Novel, 1976)
  • The Girl with the Jade Green Eyes (1978)
  • as Boyd Upchurch, with Richard Howard Ichord : Behind Every Bush: Treason or Patriotism? (Non-fiction book, 1979)
Short stories
  • The Girl and the Dolphin (in: Galaxy Magazine, March-April 1973 )
Non-fiction
  • Behind Every Bush (1979; with Richard H. Ichord)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alpers u. a .: Reclam's science fiction guide. Stuttgart 1982, p. 54
personal data
SURNAME Boyd, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Upchurch, Boyd Bradfield (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Atlanta , Georgia
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 2013
Place of death Atlanta , Georgia