Zenna Henderson

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Zenna Chlarson Henderson (born November 1, 1917 in Tucson , Arizona , † May 11, 1983 ibid) was an American elementary school teacher and writer who wrote science fiction novels and short stories.

Life

Zenna Henderson studied education at Arizona State College , where she graduated in 1940 with a Bachelor of Arts . Then she practiced the teaching profession in Tucson. During World War II, she taught Japanese children at an internment camp in Sacaton, Arizona. They married in 1943, but they divorced seven years later. From 1956 to 1958 she taught at an American military airfield near Paris . She benefited from the fact that she spoke French quite well.

Henderson was one of the first female SF writers and never used a male pseudonym . While her literary work cannot be called feminist , she was one of the few women writers in the 1950s and 1960s who wrote science fiction from a female perspective. She started reading SF magazines such as Astounding Stories of Super Science , Amazing Stories, and Weird Tales at the age of 12 .

Her parents were Mormons , so she was raised in this belief, but later converted to become Methodists .

Zenna Henderson died of cancer in 1983 in Tucson, Arizona. She was buried in St. David Cemetery (in St. David, Arizona) .

plant

Most of her stories deal with the theme of being different, with children or young people often being the main characters. Her The People series, which deals with the fate of aliens who look like humans but have psi powers , became well known. When their homeworld is destroyed, they have to flee to other planets. Some of them come to Earth (before 1900) and live there mainly in the American Southwest. Your psychic powers include telepathy , telekinesis , precognition, and spiritual healing . The individual episodes of the series are about conflicts that arise from contact with people. They originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 1952 and were summarized in a novel Pilgrimage: The Book of the People in 1961 . Another volume with people stories The People: No Different Flesh was released in 1966.

Aside from The People series, Henderson published the short story collections The Anything Box and Holding Wonder . Many of the stories in these books are about topics such as: B. Mental illness or psi, and often the actors are elementary school teachers.

reception

In 1971 Henderson's short story Pottage was filmed by the American television company ABC under the title The People , with William Shatner , Kim Darby and Diane Varsi starring. The film is about a group of extraterrestrials who look like humans and who - disguised as a religious community - live in a remote rural community. This TV production marked John Korty's debut as a director. The producer was Francis Ford Coppola .

Zenna Henderson was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1959 for her short story Captivity .

Although her books have long been out of print (this only changed in 1995 when the anthology Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson was published), she is still popular with many SF fans worldwide.

bibliography

The People
  • Ararat (1952, short story)
    • German: Ararat. In: Edward L. Ferman (Ed.): 30 Years of Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Heyne SF&F # 3763, 1981, ISBN 3-453-30732-1 .
  • Gilead (1954, short story)
  • Pottage (1955, short story)
  • Wilderness (1957, short story)
  • Captivity (1958, short story)
  • Jordan (1959, short story)
  • Pilgrimage: The Book of the People (1961)
    • German: Where is our world ?. Goldmann's Science Fiction # 26, 1961.
  • Return (1961, short story)
  • Shadow on the Moon (1962, short story)
    • German: The ship in the mountain. In: Charlotte Winheller (Ed.): The last element. Heyne General Series # 224, 1963.
  • Deluge (1963, short story)
    • German: Farewell. In: Charlotte Winheller (ed.): The survivors. Heyne General Series # 272, 1964.
  • No Different Flesh (1965, short story)
  • The People: No Different Flesh (1966, collection)
    • German: Departure into space. Goldmann's Space Paperback # 088, 1968.
  • Angels Unawares (1966, short story)
  • Troubling of the Water (1966, short story)
  • The Indelible Kind (1968, short story)
  • The Walls (1971, short story)
  • That Boy (1971, short story)
  • Katie-Mary's Trip (1975, short story)
  • Tell Us a Story (1980, short story)
    • German: Tell us a story !. In: Terry Carr (Ed.): The most beautiful science fiction stories of the year: Volume 1. Heyne SF&F # 4021, 1983, ISBN 3-453-30928-6 .
  • The People Collection (1991, collection)
  • Mark & ​​Meris 1–5 (1995, short stories)
  • Michal Without (1995, short story)
  • Ingathering: The Complete People Stories (1995, collection)
Collections
  • The Anything Box (1965)
  • Holding Wonder (1971)
Short stories
  • Come on, wagon! (1951)
  • Stevie and the Dark (1952, also as The Dark Came Out to Play ... )
  • Loo Ree (1953)
  • The Grunder (1953)
  • The Substitute (1953)
  • Hush! (1953)
  • Food to All Flesh (1953)
  • Before the Fact (1955)
  • Walking Aunt Daid (1955)
  • The Anything Box (1956)
  • Turn the Page (1957)
  • The Last Step (1958)
  • And a Little Child ... (1959)
  • Something Bright (1960)
  • The Closest School (1960)
  • Things (1960)
  • Subcommittee (1962)
    • English: The hole under the wall. In: Hans Stefan Santesson (Ed.): The secret invaders. Moewig (Terra Nova # 165), 1971.
  • The Effectives (1965)
  • J-Line to Nowhere (1969)
  • The Believing Child (1970)
  • Through a Glass - Darkly (1970)
    • German: Out of the corner of my eye. In: Terry Carr (Ed.): The Werewolf. Pabel (Terra Fantasy # 69), 1980. Also as: Sight shift . In: Terry Carr, Martin Harry Greenberg (eds.): Dream realm of magic: highlights of modern fantasy. Heyne SF&F # 4254, 1985, ISBN 3-453-31262-7 .
  • Ad Astra (1971)
  • As Simple as That (1971)
  • Boona on Scancia (1971)
  • Crowning Glory (1971)
  • Incident After (1971)
  • Love Every Third Stir (1971)
  • One of Them (1971)
  • Sharing Time (1971)
  • Swept and Garnished (1971)
  • The Taste of Aunt Sophronia (1971)
  • Three-Cornered and Secure (1971)
  • Thrumthing and Out (1972)
  • The First Stroke (1977)
  • There Was a Garden (1978)
  • ... Old ... As a Garment (1982)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lexicon of Science Fiction Literature ( Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn , Wolfgang Jeschke ), Heyne 7111, 1980, p. 365 f.
personal data
SURNAME Henderson, Zenna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Henderson, Zenna Chlarson (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American elementary school teacher and writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Tucson , Arizona
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1983
Place of death Tucson , Arizona