Michael Moorcock

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Michael Moorcock 2012

Michael John Moorcock (born December 18, 1939 in Mitcham , Surrey , England ) is a British science fiction and fantasy writer. He was also known as editor of the SF magazine New Worlds (from 1964 to 1971 and sporadically in the years up to 1996) and his longstanding collaboration with the space rock band Hawkwind (" Silver Machine ") in the 1970s.

Life

Michael Moorcock was born on the outskirts of London in 1939 . He dropped out of college at fifteen and became the editor of the comic book Tarzan Adventures Magazine. At the age of eighteen, he sold his first short story Sojan the Swordsman in 1957 . The following year he wrote his first novel. In 1964 he took over the science fiction magazine New Worlds and, increasingly from 1967 onwards, gave the emerging New Wave style a platform. The magazine failed in 1971 due to the boycott of the magazine trade, whereupon he wrote more stories again, preferably in the fantasy genre.

Moorcock lives in third marriage with his American wife Linda Steele Moorcock alternately near Austin ( Texas ) and in Paris . From his previous marriages, including with the writer Hilary Bailey , he has two daughters and a son.

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Moorcock's literary role models were James Branch Cabell , Mervyn Peake , Franz Kafka , Thomas Mann , Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen and Edgar Rice Burroughs , who particularly inspired his short stories at a young age.

Most of Moorcock's work is located in the so-called multiverse , i.e. in countless parallel worlds. There are temporal and spatial relationships between these: In many of Moorcock's stories there is a struggle between order and chaos, which has to be kept in balance by the person of the Eternal Hero (Corum, Elric, Dorian Hawkmoon, Jerry Cornelius).

Michael Moorcock's “non-swords” literature is relatively unknown in German-speaking countries. These include King of the City , Mother London or the Colonel Pyat cycle ( Byzantium Endures. The Laughter of Carthage. Jerusalem Commands and The Vengeance of Rome ), which have not been translated into German (with the exception of Byzantium Endures; German title : Byzantium is everywhere ). With these works he has had success in the Anglo-Saxon book world beyond fantasy.

His works have also influenced psychedelic music. His Elric cycle became the main theme of Hawkwind's 1985 album The Chronicle Of The Black Sword . Music bands such as Blue Öyster Cult (Black Blade, 1980), The Deep Fix or Blind Guardian also used the lyrics.

Michael Moorcock has a positive relationship with Germans. As an author of comics in the 1950s, he refused to produce war comics about the Second World War with the distorted depictions of "the bad Germans" that were common for the period. Some of his later fantasy heroes have a German identity such as Dorian Hawkmoon (dt. Dorian Falkenmond), the "Duke of Cologne", or the various members of the von Bek family. Behind this was not only Moorcock's rejection of British stereotypes, but an appreciation of the German ones Culture. He also has personal relationships with Germans and Austrians. His mentor in his youth was Ernst Jellinek, an Austrian who fled to London, who raised funds in England to buy Jewish compatriots out of Nazi custody. Moorcock has a goddaughter in Bavaria , Oona von Baudissin , to whom he dedicated The Daughter of Dream Thieves (whose heroine is also called Oona ).

The character of Jerry Cornelius created by Moorcock was adapted by the French comic artist Moebius for his album series Major Grubert .

Awards

bibliography

Series and cycles

The series are arranged according to the year of publication of the first part.

Eternal Champion

All translated by Eva Eppers.

Warrior of Mars / Michael Kane saga

(published under the pseudonym Edward P. Bradbury, all translated by Sylvia Brecht-Pukallus)

Hawkmoon

The History of the Runestaff / Runestaff saga

All translated by Lore Straßl .

Chronicles of Castle Brass / Chronik von Burg Brass

All translated by Lore Straßl.

The Jerry Cornelius Chronicles

The works not listed in the chronology are short stories.

Corum

Oswald Bastable Trilogy / The Time Nomads

Influential for the development of the literary genre of steampunk, the series includes:

Elric von Melniboné cycle

The stories from the following two collections were later divided by Moorcock into volumes 3 and 5:

  • The Stealer of Souls (1967)
  • The Singing Citadel (1970)

German collective editions:

Oona Von Bek / The new Elric saga
  • 1. The Dreamthief's Daughter: A Tale of the Albino , Earthlight 2001, ISBN 0-684-86131-3
    • Daughter of dream thieves , Heyne 2002, translator Jürgen Langowski, ISBN 3-492-28547-3
  • 2. The Skrayling Tree: The Albino in America , Aspect / Warner Books 2003, ISBN 0-446-53104-9
  • 3. The White Wolf's Son: The Albino Underground , Aspect / Warner Books 2005, ISBN 0-446-57702-2
  • The Elric Saga: Part IV , SFBC Fantasy 2005, ISBN 0-7394-5691-1 (collective edition from 1–3)

The End of Time

The Dancers at the End of Time
Tales from the End of Time

from Bek cycle

Between the Wars

Second ether

Single novels

  • Breakfast in the Ruins (1962)
  • The Fireclown / The Winds of Limbo (1965)
  • The Sundered Worlds / The Blood Red Game (1965)
  • The Twilight Man / The Shores of Death (1966)
  • The Deep Fix (1966, as James Colvin)
  • Printer's Devil (1966, as Bill Barclay)
  • Somewhere in the Night (1966, as Bill Barclay)
  • The Wrecks of Time / The Rituals of Infinity (1967)
  • Behold the Man (1969)
  • The Black Corridor (1969)
  • The Ice Schooner (1969)
  • The Chinese Agent (1970)
  • The Distant Suns (1975, with Philip James)
  • The Time of the Hawklords (1976, with Michael Butterworth )
  • The Golden Barge (1977)
  • Gloriana / Gloriana or The Unfullfill'd Queen (1978)
  • The Swords of Heaven, the Flowers of Hell (1978, with Howard Chaykin)
  • The Real Life Mr Newman (1979)
  • The Russian Intelligence (1980)
  • Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980)
  • Mother London (1988)
  • Sailing to Utopia (1993)
  • Silverheart (2000, with Storm Constantine )
  • King of the City (2000)

Collections

  • The Deep Fix (1966, as James Colvin)
  • The Time Dweller (1969)
  • The Singing Citadel (1970)
  • Moorcock's Book of Martyrs / Dying for Tomorrow (1976)
  • Soyan (1977)
  • My Experiences in the Third World War (1980)
  • The Entropy Tango (1981)
  • The Opium General (1984)
  • Casablanca (1989)
  • Lunching with the Antichrist (1995)
  • Tales from the Texas Woods (1997)
  • Earl Aubec (1999)
  • London Bone (2000)
  • The Metatemporal Detective (2007)
  • The Best of Michael Moorcock (2009)
  • The Sunday Books (2011)

As editor

  • Best SF Stories from New Worlds (1969)
  • New Worlds 3 (1972)
  • New Worlds 6 (1973, with Charles Platt )
  • New Worlds (1997, with David S. Garnett )
  • New Worlds: An Anthology (2004)
  • Moorcock's Miscellany (2006)

Non-fiction

  • Wizardry And Wild Romance: A Study Of Epic Fantasy (1987)
  • Fantasy: The 100 Best Books (1987, with James Cawthorn)
  • Mervyn Peake: A Memoir (2004)

illustration

Text by Michael Moorcock, illustrations by Rodney Matthews . Illustrated original version of the fantasy saga Elric.

literature

Monographs and Articles
Lexicons

Web links

Commons : Michael Moorcock  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Michael Moorcock  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brian M. Stableford : Science Fact and Science Fiction: an Encyclopedia . Routledge, New York 2006, ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8 , Steampunk, pp. 502 f . (English).
personal data
SURNAME Moorcock, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Moorcock, Michael John (full name); Barclay, William (pen name); Barclay, Bill (pseudonym); Barrington, Michael (pseudonym); Bradbury, Edward P. (pen name); Colvin, James (pen name); Colvin, Warwick (pseudonym); Harris Jr., Roger (pen name); Moorcock, Mike (alternative spelling); Moorcock, MJ (alternative spelling); Reid, Desmond (pseudonym); Renegade (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British science fiction and fantasy writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Mitcham , Surrey, England