L. Ron Hubbard

Hubbard in Los Angeles, 1950

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (born March 13, 1911 in Tilden , Nebraska , † January 24, 1986 in San Luis Obispo , California ) was an American science fiction , pulp magazine and self-help author. In 1954 he founded Scientology .

Life

Hubbard was the son of Ledora May Hubbard (nee Waterbury ) and Harry Ross Hubbard , a former member of the US Navy . He spent the first years of his life in Helena ( Montana ), where his father worked as a ticket seller at a theater. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, his father got a job as an accountant for a coal company. In the spring of 1917 he returned to the US Navy to fight in World War I. With the end of the war in 1918, the father rose to paymaster and stayed in the Navy to continue his career. In 1920 he was promoted to supply officer, but was temporarily postponed from service due to unpaid bills. In 1921 Harry Hubbard was allowed to return to active service and received a post as assistant supply officer on the ship USS Oklahoma . Then his mother moved with Ron to San Diego , the home port of the USS Oklahoma. Ron joined a boy scout group there and rose to become an Eagle Scout .

Hubbard's family moved to Bremerton , Washington, in 1924 , and to Seattle in 1926 . In 1927 Ron accompanied his mother to Guam , where his father was now stationed. Upon returning, Ron dropped out of high school in 1928 and returned to Guam.

After his return to the United States , Ron Hubbard married Margaret "Polly" Louise Grubb on April 13, 1933. His first son, L. Ron Hubbard, Jr., was born on May 7, 1934. Later he was called Ronald DeWolf . In 1936 a second child, Catherine May, was born and the family moved to Bremerton.

In December 1945, Louise Hubbard told Grubb that Hubbard had left her and her children. She filed for divorce on April 14, 1947, which was pronounced on December 24, 1947 in Port Orchard, Washington.

Hubbard married Sara Northrup, then unaware of his first marriage, in Chestertown, Maryland, on August 10, 1946, eight months before the divorce petitioned and a year and a half before it was pronounced. As a result, Hubbard was charged with bigamy by Sara , but there was never a trial. A few months later, Sara withdrew this and other statements, the marriage was divorced, and Sara was given custody of her daughter Alexis, who had previously been kidnapped by Hubbard.

In February 1979, Hubbard was sentenced to four years imprisonment in absentia for fraud in France, but never served that term. That was the last year he was seen by credible witnesses. Mary Sue, his third wife and then head of the organization, was convicted in the US for her involvement in Operation Snow White for fraudulent behavior, breaking into government buildings, and stealing documents and government property.

Hubbard died on 24 January 1986 at his ranch near Creston , California, on a stroke .

Education, professional and literary activities

Ron Hubbard began writing short stories in Guam in 1928. On December 18, 1928, he failed the Navy Academy entrance exam . In 1929 he was rejected by the US Navy due to his poor eyesight. In September 1930 he enrolled in Civil Engineering ( Civil Engineering ) at the George Washington University one. He became a reporter for the campus newspaper Hatchet , but only finished the year with a D-grade , a "sufficient". In 1931 his first article appeared in Sportsman Pilot . The Hatchet published its first science fiction stories in February 1932. In the summer of the same year he had to leave university.

In 1936 Hubbard had discovered the still largely untapped market of so-called pulp stories for himself (see Pulp-Magazin ). In 1937 his first novel Buckskin Brigades was published . In 1938, Hubbard met the editor of Astounding , John W. Campbell . The Dangerous Dimension was released that same year .

After the outbreak of World War II , Hubbard tried again to be accepted into the US armed forces . In 1941 he was finally accepted by the US Navy as a lieutenant and assigned to the public relations department . In December 1941 he left the American Navy. According to his own account, he was "shot to pieces" at the front, and according to a biographer, Hubbard was receiving a pension because of a stomach ulcer and arthritis. According to research by a journalist, his file contains the comment "Suspected insanity".

In the 1960s he tried his hand at being an inventor. Among other things, he invented a device that was supposed to measure the pain in tomatoes when you cut them open.

Religious occupation and theories

Upon his return to the United States, Hubbard moved to Pasadena via San Francisco. Here he began to be interested in religion and magic as persecuted by the Ordo Templi Orientis . He did not join this order, however, but worked with Jack Parsons , a letter student of the occultist Aleister Crowley . When Hubbard and Parsons announced that they would create a “moonchild”, a magically optimized child, through a magical operation, Crowley reacted angrily.

The collaboration between Hubbard and Parsons ended when Hubbard stole Parsons yacht and ran away on board with Parson's former girlfriend Sara Northrup. Hubbard believed that after discovering the theft, Parsons conjured up a demon that capsized the ship.

In 1950, Hubbard published Dianetics , in which he designed therapies and promised to turn people into "immortal geniuses ." When the book had some success, he established a teaching called Dianetics with corresponding seminars, which he called "applied religious philosophy". In 1954 he founded a church called Scientology for tax reasons . According to Harlan Ellison , the idea came up at a meeting of science fiction writers in New York. Hubbard lamented the poor payment for his literary work, whereupon Lester del Rey half-jokingly suggested that he should found a religious community because it was tax-exempt.

Hubbard developed a. a. a process that traces problems in studying back to certain causes, for example: misunderstood or misunderstood words, insufficient reference to reality or a skipped level. According to Hubbard, this can cause physical symptoms such as yawning or dizziness, or cause a student to drop out of college.

The "study technology" is cited as a supposed means against illiteracy and school fatigue. It is used in Scientology communities and some Scientologist-run private schools, and in some cases also by unorganized readers of the books. Critics point to the lack of scientific nature of the method as well as the fact that L. Ron Hubbard had no university degree and that David Miscavige , the current leader of Scientology, did not have a high school diploma.

In 1966, Hubbard officially resigned from leading the organization and founded the Sea Org as an elite Scientology force. For several years he traveled the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic with a fleet of ships. From around 1974 he lived again in the United States, first in Florida, then in California . In the 1980s he wrote two major science fiction novels, including the later with John Travolta filmed Battlefield Earth - Battlefield Earth .

In many Scientology organizations an office has been kept ready for him that can only be entered by cleaning staff.

bibliography

Hubbard is the author of reportedly over 100 non-fiction books and over 220 novels, some of which have been translated into over 50 languages. In the 1930s and 1940s, Hubbard published only novels, then mostly non-fiction books. There are also various loose-leaf collections of writings that cover a few thousand pages.

Fiction

Series

Conquest of Space (Short Stories, as René Lafayette)

• 1 Forbidden Voyage (1949)
• 2 The Magnificent Failure (1949)
• 3 The Incredible Destination (1949)
• 4 The Unwilling Hero (1949)
• 5 Beyond the Black Nebula (1949)
• 6 The Emperor of the Universe (1949)
• 7 The Last Admiral (1950)

Kilkenny Cats (Short Stories, as Kurt von Rachen)

• The Idealist (1940)
• The Kilkenny Cats (1940)
• The Traitor (1941)
• The Mutineers (1941)
• The Rebels (1942)

Mission Earth

• 1 The Invaders Plan (1985)
• 2 Black Genesis (1986)
• 3 The Enemy Within (1986)
• 4 An Alien Affair (1986)
• 5 Fortune of Fear (1986)
• 6 Death Quest (1987)
• 7 Voyage of Vengeance (1987)
• 8 Disaster (1987)
• 9 Villainy Victorious (1987)
• 10 The Doomed Planet (1987)

Ole Doc Methuselah (short stories, also as René Lafayette)

• Ole Doc Methuselah (1947)
• The Expensive Slaves (1947)
• Her Majesty's Aberration (1948)
• The Great Air Monopoly (1948)
• Plague (1949)
  • German: The plague on board. Moewig (Terra # 512), 1967.
• A Sound Investment (1949)
  • German: Panik. Moewig (Terra # 512), 1967.
• Ole Mother Methuselah (1950)
  • German: Mama Methusalem. Moewig (Terra # 512), 1967.
• Ole Doc Methuselah (1970, collection)

Slaves of Sleep

• 1 Slaves of Sleep (1939)
• 2 The Masters of Sleep (1950)

Novels

• The Carnival of Death (1934)
• Under the Black Ensign (1935)
• Spy Killer (1936)
• Buckskin Brigades (1937)
• The Tramp (1938, 2011)
• The Ghoul (1939, 1991)
• Fear (1940)
  • German: Sacrifice of the Demons. Pabel (Vampire Horror Novel # 69), 1974.
• Final Blackout (1940)
• Typewriter in the Sky (1940)
• Death's Deputy (1940)
  • German: Messenger of horror. Pabel (Vampire Horror Novel # 26), 1973.
• The Chee-Chalker (1947)
• The End Is Not Yet (1947)
• To the Stars (1950, also as Return to Tomorrow , 1954)
  • German: Trapped in space and time. Gebrüder Zimmermann (Hönne Utopia-Spitzenklasse # 8), 1957. Also: Moewig (Terra # 60), 1959.
• Battlefield Earth (1982)
  • German: fight for the earth
• The Case of the Friendly Corpse (1991)
• Ai! Pedrito! When Intelligence Goes Wrong (1998, with Kevin J. Anderson)
• A Very Strange Trip (1999, with Dave Wolverton)
• The Falcon Killer (2011)
• Hurricane (2011)
• Mouthpiece (2012)

Collections

• The Kingslayer (1949, also called Seven Steps to the Arbiter , 1975)
• Triton and Battle of Wizards (1949)
• From Death to the Stars (1953)
• Lives You Wished to Lead But Never Dared (1978)
• The Kilkenny Cats Series (1992)
• Science Fiction Short Stories Volume 1 (1993)
• The Invaders & The Beast (1993)
• If I Were You (2008)
• The Great Secret (2008)
• Danger in the Dark (2009)
• When Shadows Fall (2009)
• The Professor Was a Thief (2009)
• A Matter of Matter (2010)
• The Crossroads (2010)
• Golden Age Stories - Fantasy Tales: Danger in the Dark, If I Were You (2010)
• Greed (2011)
• Beyond All Weapons (2012)
• Death Waits at Sundown (2012)
• Hell's Legionnaire (2012)
• The Magic Quirt (2012)
• Mouthpiece (2012)
• Gunman's Tally (2013)
• One Was Stubborn (2014)

German collection

• The fighters of the light. Moewig (Terra # 512), 1967.

Short stories

• Dead Men Kill (1934)
• Twenty Fathoms Down (1934)
• He Walked to War (1935)
• The Sky Crasher (1936)
• The Mad Dog Murder (1936)
• Flaming Arrows (1936)
• The Dangerous Dimension (1938)
  • German: The negative dimension. In: Sam Moskowitz (ed.): The faces of the future. Pabel (Terra Taschenbuch # 220), 1973.
• Branded Outlaw (1938)
• General Swamp, CIC (1939, as Frederick Engelhardt)
• This Ship Kills! (1939, as Frederick Engelhardt)
• Trouble on His Wings (1939)
• The Ultimate Adventure (1939)
• Danger in the Dark (1939)
• Vanderdecke (1939, as Frederick Engelhardt)
• If I Were You (1940)
• The Professor Was a Thief (1940)
• Triton (1940, also as The Indigestible Triton , 1940, as René Lafayette)
• The Kraken (1940, as Frederick Engelhardt)
• The Devil's Rescue (1940)
• One Was Stubborn (1940, as Rene La Fayette)
• History Class, 2133 AD (1941, as Frederick Engelhardt)
• The Crossroads (1941)
• The Case of the Friendly Corpse (1941)
• Borrowed Glory (1941)
• The Last Drop (1941, with L. Sprague de Camp)
• The Invaders (1942, also as Behind the Black Nebula )
  • German: The enemy. In: Walter Ernsting (Ed.): Utopia Science Fiction Magazin, # 8. Pabel, 1957.
• He Didn't Like Cats (1942)
• Strain (1942)
• The Room (1942)
• The Slaver (1942)
• Space Can (1942)
• The Beast (1942)
• The Great Secret (1943)
• The Obsolete Weapon (1948)
• When Shadows Fall (1948)
• 240,000 Miles Straight Up (1948)
• Preface (The Kingslayer) (1949)
• Story Preview: A Matter of Matter (1949)
• The Kingslayer (1949)
• The Conroy Diary (1949, as René Lafayette)
• Battle of Wizards (1949)
• A Matter of Matter (1949)
• The Automagic Horse (1949)
• The Planet Makers (1949)
• A Can of Vacuum (1949)
• Beyond All Weapons (1950)
• Hoss Tamer (1950)
• Greed (1950)
• Battling Bolto (1950)
• Final Enemy (1950)
• Tough Old Man (1950)
• The Were-Human (1981)
• He Found God (1982)
• Mission Earth (excerpt) (1985)
• Unlucky Pistols (2003)
• Stacked Bullets (2012)
• The Magic Quirt (2012)
• Vengeance Is Mine! (2012)

Scientology

• Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Hermitage House, New York 1950.
• Science of Survival. Hubbard, Wichita and East Grinstead 1951.
• Self Analysis. International Library of Arts and Science, Wichita 1951.
• Dianetics: The Original Thesis. Wichita Publishing, Wichita 1951.
• Handbook for Preclears. Scientic Press, Wichita 1951.
• Notes on the Lectures of L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard, Wichita 1951.
• Advanced Procedure and Axioms. Hubbard, Wichita 1951.
• Scientology 8-8008. Hubbard, Phoenix and Scientology, East Grinstead 1952.
• A key to the unconscious. Scientic Press, Phoenix 1952.
• Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science. Hubbard, London 1953.
• Scientology: A History of Man. Hubbard, London 1953.
• How to Live Though an Executive. Hubbard, Phoenix 1953.
• Self-Analysis in Dianetics. Ridgway, London 1953.
• Scientology 8-8008. Hubbard, London 1953.
• Dianetics 19551. Hubbard, Phoenix 1954.
• The Creation of Human Ability: A Handbook for Scientologists. Hubbard, Phoenix 1955.
• This Is Scientology: The Science of Certainty. Hubbard, London 1955.
• The Key to Tomorrow (selections), edited by U. Hubbard, Keith Gerry. Johannesburg 1955.
• Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought. Hubbard, London 1956.
• Problems of Work. Hubbard, Johannesburg 1957.
• Fortress in the Sky (on the moon). Hubbard, Washington, DC 1957.
• Have You Lived Before This Life? Hubbard, London 1958.
• Self-Analysis in Scientology. Hubbard, London 1959.
• Scientology: Plan for World Peace. Scientology, East Grinstead 1964.
• Scientology Abridged Dictionary. Hubbard, East Grinstead 1965.
• A Student Comes to Saint Hill. Sidney Press, Bedford 1965.
• Scientology: A New Slant on Life. Hubbard, London 1965.
• East Grinstead. Hubbard, East Grinstead 1966.
• Introduction to Scientology Ethics. Scientology, Edinburgh 1968.
• The Phoenix Lectures. Scientology, Edinburgh 1968.
• How to Save Your Marriage. Scientology, Copenhagen 1969.
• When in Doubt, Communicate: Quotations from the Work of L. Ron Hubbard. Edited by Ruth Minshull and Edward M. Lefshon. Scientology, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1969.
• Scientology 0-8. Scientology, Copenhagen 1970.
• Mission into Time. Scientology, Copenhagen 1973.
• The Management Series 1970-1974. American Saint Hill Organization, Los Angeles 1974.
• The Organization Executive Course. 8 vols. American Saint Hill Organization, Los Angeles 1974.
• Dianetics Today. Scientology, Los Angeles 1975.
• Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary. Scientology, Los Angeles 1975.
• The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology. Scientology, Los Angeles 1976-1986.
• The Volunteer Minister's Handbook. Scientology, Los Angeles 1976.
• Axioms and Logics. Scientology, Los Angeles 1976.
• A Summary of Scientology for Churches. Scientology, Los Angeles 1977.
• The Book of Case Remedies. Scientology, Los Angeles 1977.
• What is Scientology. Scientology, Los Angeles 1978.
• The Research and Discovery Series. Los Angeles, Scientology, 1980-1986.
• The Second Dynamic. Edited by Cass Pool. Heron, Portland, Oregon 1981.
• Self-analysis. Bridge, Los Angeles 1982.
• Scientology: Fundamentals of Thought. Bridge, Los Angeles 1983.
• Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science. Bridge, Los Angeles 1983.
• The Problems of Work. Bridge, Los Angeles 1983.
• The Dynamics of Life. Bridge, Los Angeles 1983.
• The Way to Happiness. Bridge, Los Angeles 1984.
• Purification: An Illustrated Answer to Drugs. Bridge, Los Angeles 1984.
• The Learning Book. New Era, Copenhagen 1984.
• Child Dianectics. Bridge, Los Angeles 1989.

literature

Monographs

• Jon Atack: A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics, and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed. Lyle Stuart, London 1990; Carol, New York 1990.
• Linus Hauser : Scientology. Birth of an empire. Schöningh, Paderborn 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-77010-3 .
• Russell Miller: Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. Joseph, London 1987; Holt, New York 1988 ( German translation online )
• Dan Sherman: L. Ron Hubbard: A Portrait. New Era Publications, Copenhagen 2012, ISBN 978-87-649-7404-1 (“official” biography).

Lexicons

• Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn : Reclam's science fiction guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-010312-6 , p. 213 f.
• Hans Joachim Alpers, Werner Fuchs, Ronald M. Hahn, Wolfgang Jeschke : Lexicon of Science Fiction Literature. Heyne, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-02453-2 , p. 566 f.
• John P. Brennan: Hubbard, L (aFayette) Ron (ald) . In: Noelle Watson, Paul E. Schellinger: Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers. St. James Press, Chicago 1991, ISBN 1-55862-111-3 , pp. 393-395.
• John Clute , Peter Nicholls : Hubbard, L Ron. In: (dies.): The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . 3rd edition (online edition), version dated March 16, 2018.
• Don D'Ammassa : Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Facts On File, New York 2005, ISBN 0-8160-5924-1 , pp. 190 f.
• George Mann : The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Robinson, London 2001, ISBN 1-84119-177-9 , p. 176 f.
• Donald H. Tuck : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1968. Advent, Chicago 1974, ISBN 0-911682-20-1 , p. 232 f.

items

• Olaf Francke, Neidthard Kupfer: Church or Group? DianetiK / Scientology . In: The Magickal Observer - the esoteric magazine on the Internet. Issue 1/2008 (deals with Hubbard's references to occultism).

Web links

Commons : L. Ron Hubbard  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Literature by and about L. Ron Hubbard in the catalog of the German National Library
• L. Ron Hubbard in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
• L. Ron Hubbard in the Science Fiction Awards + Database
• L. Ron Hubbard in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Works by and about L. Ron Hubbard at Open Library
• L. Ron Hubbard in Fantastic Fiction (English)
• Scientology criticism by Ingo Heinemann with Hubbard biography ( The fake hero )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ingo Heinemann: The son of the Scientology founder: "He was a fraud" . Ronald DeWolf's affidavit on his father's behalf in the United States District Court for the Massachusetts District. (around 1982, German and English)
2. ^ Penthouse: Interview With L. Ron Hubbard Jr. "Scientology and all the other cults are one-dimensional, and we live in a three-dimensional world. Cults are as dangerous as drugs. They commit the highest crime: the rape of the soul. " L. Ron Hubbard Jr. ( August 19, 2013 memento on the Internet Archive ) and Scientiolgy response: Allan Sonnenschein: Excerpts from a telephone interview with Heber Jentzsch. June 1983
3. ↑ Russell Miller: Bare Faced Messiah . Holt, New York 1987; ISBN 0-8050-0654-0 . FBI report of the interrogation of Margaret Ochs (L. Ron Hubbard's first wife) by Inspector W. Beale Grove, Philadelphia District on February 20, 1963.
4. ↑ Extraits du jugement du Tribunal Correctionnel de Paris ayant condame Hubbard le gourou a quatre ans de prison ferme et 35000 F d'amende plus les frais de justice (32525 F), en date du 14 Février 1978, Paris, n ° 9 ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ State Office for the Protection of the Constitution Baden-Württemberg: Scientology Organization | L. Ron HUBBARD / David MISCAVIGE ; 2008
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Hugo Stamm: Anything but a universal genius ; Badische Zeitung, paper edition, March 12, 2011.
7. ↑ Benjamin Maack: Crazy Inventions. Technology that cheers ; in it a Getty picture: Hubbard with the tomato measuring device
8. ↑ Michael Shermer: The Real Science behind Scientology. In: Scientific American 305 (2011), 5, p. 94