Sterling E. Lanier

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Sterling Edmund Lanier (born December 18, 1927 , New York City ; died June 28, 2007 in Sarasota , Florida ) was an American writer and publisher of science fiction and fantasy literature. His most famous book is Hieros Travel (1973).

life and work

Lanier's father was Berwick's naval officer and attorney Bruce Lanier, and his mother was Priscilla Thorne, nee Taylor. Lanier served as a soldier in World War II and then studied at Harvard University , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1951 . He then served in the Korean War and studied archeology and anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania from 1953 to 1958 . From 1958 to 1960 he conducted historical research at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware .

In 1961 he married Martha Hanna Pelton, with whom he had two children. In the following years he worked as an editor for various publishers in Philadelphia , first at the John C. Winston Company , from 1961 to 1963 at Chilton Books , then until 1964 at Macrae Smith and then again until 1967 at Chilton Books , where he worked in 1965 successfully used for the publication of Frank Herbert 's epic science fiction novel Dune .

Lanier himself had already published the short story Join Our Gang? In 1961 in the SF magazine Analog . started publishing science fiction. From 1965 onwards, the stories about the Brigadier Fellowes began to appear, which appeared collectively in The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Fellowes (1971) and The Curious Quests of Brigadier Fellowes (1986). There are tall tales , brazen confabulations that Fellowes dished out to his astonished audience, mainly of alleged encounters with legendary figures and mythical creatures - Lanier was also very interested in cryptozoology throughout his life . They are in the tradition of Lord Dunsanys Jorkens , Lanier himself named Arthur Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard and William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki as role models.

Lanier's best-known work, however, is Hiero's Journey , a 1973 SF novel with fantasy elements: Millennia after the earth was devastated by a nuclear war, the paranormally gifted titular hero Hiero Desteen embarks on the arduous journey from North America to the forgotten cities the Atlantic coast, where there are said to be computers in which mankind's lost knowledge is stored. On the journey he has to endure numerous adventures with his mount, a mutated giant moose, and defend himself against mutants, intelligent animals and above all the telepaths of the "Black Brotherhood". According to the lexicon of science fiction literature "for many connoisseurs of the genre [...] one of the most colorful and imaginative novels of the seventies." Both Hiero's journey and the sequel Der Unforgotten Hiero (1983) have been translated into German.

In 1970 he received the Follett Gold Medal for The War of the Lot , the publishing price of the Follett Publishing Company . In 1974 he was nominated for the Locus Award with Hiero's Journey and in 1975 with the short story A Father's Tale for the World Fantasy Award .

In the years after 1967, Lanier earned his living not as a writer, but as an artisan who made jewelry and, above all, miniature figures - mostly of animals. These figures included miniature sculptures designed by Lanier of characters from the Lord of the Rings , which Tolkien approved, but refused to allow their marketing. Some of Lanier's works, who was a self-taught sculptor , have found their way into the collections of the Smithsonian .

Sterling E. Lanier died on June 28, 2007 at the age of 79 in Sarasota, Florida.

bibliography

Brigadier Fellowes (short story series)
  • His Coat So Gay (1965)
  • Soldier Key (1968)
  • The Kings of the Sea (1968)
  • The Leftovers (1969)
  • Fraternity Brother (1969)
  • A Feminine Jurisdiction (1969)
  • His Only Safari (1970)
  • And the Voice of the Turtle ... (1972)
  • Thinking of the Unthinkable (1973)
  • A Father's Tale (1974)
    • German: The story of a father. In: Isaac Asimov, Martin Harry Greenberg, Charles Waugh (eds.): With Sherlock Holmes through space and time (1). Ullstein (Ullstein Science Fiction & Fantasy # 31140), 1987, ISBN 3-548-31140-7 .
  • Ghost of a Crown (1976)
    • German: The Spirit of the Crown. 1978.
  • Commander in the Mist (1982)
    • German: From the fog of times. In: Ronald M. Hahn (Ed.): Myths of the near future. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 4062), 1984, ISBN 3-453-31004-7 .
  • The Brigadier in Check - and Mate (1986)
  • The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Fellowes (1971, collection)
  • The Curious Quests of Brigadier Fellowes (1986, collection)
Hiero Desteen (novel series)
  • 1 Hiero's Journey (1973)
    • German: Hieros Reise. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 3425), 1975, ISBN 3-453-30315-6 .
  • 2 The Unforsaken Hiero (1983)
    • German: The unforgotten Hiero. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 4197), 1985, ISBN 3-453-31172-8 .
  • Hiero Desteen (1984, omnibus)
Novels
  • The War for the Lot (1969)
  • Menace Under Marswood (1983)
Short stories
  • Join Our Gang? (1961)
  • Deathchild (1968)
  • Whose Short Happy Life? (1968)
  • Such Stuff As Dreams ... (1968)
  • Never Cry Human (1971)
  • ... No Traveler Returns (1974)
  • The Syndicated Time (1978)
    • German: Das Zeitsyndikat. In: Manfred Kluge (Ed.): The time syndicate. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 3845), 1981, ISBN 3-453-30774-7 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Robert Reginald : Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. A checklist. Detroit 1979, p. 969.
  2. ↑ A prize donated by the sons of Charles W. Follett in memory of their father, which was awarded between 1950 and 1974 to authors of the publishing house in the field of children's and youth books.
  3. ↑ a b Sterling E. Lanier , obituary in the Herald Tribune, July 1, 2007.
personal data
SURNAME Lanier, Sterling E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lanier, Sterling Edmund (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 2007
Place of death Sarasota , Florida