Theodore Sturgeon: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American speculative fiction writer (1918–1985)}}

| birth_place = [[Staten Island, New York City]], U.S.

| occupation = {{hlist|Fiction writer, [[literary criticism|critic]]}}

| genre = {{hlist|[[Science fiction]], |[[Fantasy fiction|fantasy]], |[[Horror fiction|horror]], |[[Mystery fiction|mystery]],| [[Western fiction|western]], |[[literary criticism]]}}

| notableworks = {{plainlistubl|

| awards = {{hlist|[[Hugo Award|Hugo]], |[[Nebula Award|Nebula]]<ref name=SFAwards/>}}

[[File:Fantastic adventures 195002.jpg|thumb|right|An early version of Sturgeon's first novel, "''The Dreaming Jewels"'', was the cover story in the February 1950 issue of ''Fantastic Adventures'']]

[[File:Planet stories 195109.jpg|thumb|right|Sturgeon's novella "''The Incubi of Parallel X"'' was the cover story in the September 1951 ''Planet Stories'']]

[[File:Galaxy 195405.jpg|thumb|right|Sturgeon's novella "''Granny Won't Knit"'' took the cover of the May 1954 ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', illustrated by [[Ed Emshwiller]]]]

'''Theodore Sturgeon''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|t|ɜr|dʒ|ən}}; born '''Edward Hamilton Waldo''', February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily [[fantasy fiction|fantasy]], [[science fiction]], and [[Horror fiction|horror]], as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 short stories, 11 novels, and several scripts for ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]''.<ref name=isfdb/>

An overview of his work by science fiction critic [[Sam Moskowitz]] can be found in the collective biography ''[[Seekers of Tomorrow]]''.<ref>Moskowitz, Samuel. [[iarchive:seekersoftomorro00mosk/page/229/mode/2up|''Seekers of Tomorrow: Masters of Modern Science Fiction''.]]. Westport, Connecticut: Hyperion Press, 1974. Print. Pages 229-248.</ref>

}}</ref> Three Sturgeon stories were adapted for the 1950s NBC radio anthology ''[[X Minus One]]'': "[[A Saucer of Loneliness]]" (broadcast twice}, "The Stars Are Thethe Styx" and "Mr. Costello, Hero".

[[Carl Sagan]] described "To Here and the Easel" as "a stunning portrait of personality disassociation as perceived from the inside", and further said that many of Sturgeon's works were among the "rare few science‐fiction novels [that] combine a standard science‐fiction theme with a deep human sensitivity".<ref name="sagan19780528">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |title=Growing up with Science Fiction |last=Sagan |first=Carl |date=1978-05-28 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2018-12-12 |page=SM7 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2018-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211180058/https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[John Clute]] wrote in ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'': "His influence upon writers like [[Harlan Ellison]] and [[Samuel R. Delany]] was seminal, and in his life and work he was a powerful and generally liberating influence in post-WWII US sf". He won comparatively few genre awards. (One was the [[World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement]] from the 1985 World Fantasy Convention.)<ref name=SFAwards/>

Sturgeon's original novels were all published between 1950 and 1961, and the bulk of his short story work dated from the 1940s and 1950s. Though he continued to write through 1983, his work rate dipped noticeably in the later years of his life; a 1971 story collection entitled ''Sturgeon Is Alive Andand Well...'' addressed Sturgeon's seeming withdrawal from the public eye in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Sturgeon lived for several years in [[Springfield, Oregon]].<ref name=Portal>{{cite news |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LPFVAAAAIBAJ&pg=2474,2425068&dq |title= Famed author, award-winner, dies in Eugene |last= Portal |first= Ann |date= May 10, 1985 |work= [[The Register-Guard]] |location= Eugene, Oregon |access-date= 2011-06-20 |archive-date= 2021-03-04 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210304063357/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LPFVAAAAIBAJ&pg=2474,2425068&dq |url-status= live }}</ref> He died on May 8, 1985, of [[lung fibrosis]], at [[Sacred Heart Medical Center University District|Sacred Heart General Hospital]] in the neighboring city of [[Eugene, Oregon|Eugene]].<ref name=Portal/>

He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the [[Trap Door Spiders]], which served as the basis of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s fictional group of mystery solvers the [[Black Widowers]]. Sturgeon was the inspiration for the recurrent character of [[Kilgore Trout]] in the novels of [[Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.|Kurt Vonnegut]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.flf.com/mnight/aol_qa.htm |title=Interview with Vonnegut |access-date=2013-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980115150204/http://www.flf.com/mnight/aol_qa.htm |archive-date=January 15, 1998 }} "I think it's funny when someone is named after a fish"</ref>

: "Nothing is always absolutely so."{{Cn|date=June 2023}}

However, the former statement is now widely referred to as Sturgeon's Law. He is also known for his dedication to a credo of critical thinking that challenged all normative assumptions: "Ask the next question." He represented this credo by the symbol of a Q with an arrow through it, an example of which he wore around his neck and used as part of his signature in the last 15&nbsp;years of his life.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://physics.emory.edu/faculty/weeks/misc/duncan.html |title=The Push from Within: The Extrapolative Ability of Theodore Sturgeon}}</ref>

Theodore's birth father, Edward Waldo, was a color and dye manufacturer of middling success. With his second wife, Anne, he had one daughter, Joan. Theodore's mother, Christine Hamilton Dicker (Waldo) Sturgeon, was a well-educated writer, watercolorist, and poet who published journalism, poetry, and fiction under the name Felix Sturgeon. His stepfather, William Dickie Sturgeon (sometimes known as Argyll), was a mathematics teacher at a prep school and then Romance Languages Professor at Drexel Institute [(later [[Drexel Institute of Technology]]]) in Philadelphia. Sturgeon's account of his stepfather is included in a posthumous memoir.<ref name="Argyll">Sturgeon, Theodore (1993). ''Argyll; A Memoir'', Entwhistle Books. {{ISBN|978-0934558167}}</ref> Sturgeon's sibling, [[Peter A. Sturgeon|Peter Sturgeon]], wrote technical material for the pharmaceutical industry and the [[World Health Organization|WHO]], and founded the American branch of [[Mensa International|Mensa]].

Sturgeon held a wide variety of jobs during his lifetime. As an adolescent, he wanted to be a circus [[acrobatics|acrobat]]; an episode of [[rheumatic fever]] prevented him from pursuing this. From 1935 (aged 17) to 1938, he was a sailor in the [[merchant marine]], and elements of that experience found their way into several stories. He sold [[refrigerator]]s door to door. He managed a hotel in [[Jamaica]] around 1940–1941, worked in several construction and infrastructure jobs (driving a bulldozer in [[Puerto Rico]], operating a [[gasfilling station]] and truck lubrication center, work at a [[drydock]]) for the US Army in the early war years, and by 1944 was an advertising copywriter. In addition to freelance fiction and television writing, in New York City he opened his own literary agency<ref name="Agency">{{Cite book |title=Bright Segment |last=Sturgeon |first=Theodore |publisher=North Atlantic Books |year=2002 |isbn=1556433980 |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=Paul |pages=xiii |chapter=Foreword by William Tenn}}</ref> (which was eventually transferred to [[Scott Meredith]]), worked for ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'' magazine and other Time Inc. properties on circulation, and edited various publications. Sturgeon had somewhat irregular output, frequently suffering from [[writer's block]].

* Finally, his last long-term committed relationship was with writer and educator Jayne Englehart Tannehill, with whom he remained until the time of his death. She joined Theodore Sturgeon at book signings for his collection "Maturity", and signed as "Jayne Sturgeon". Jayne Englehart had her own biological son, Mark J. Englehart, prior to her partnership with Sturgeon, to whichwhom Sturgeon became like a stepfather.

* ''Argyll: A Memoir'', (pamphlet, Sturgeon Project, 1993), an autobiographical sketch about Sturgeon's relationship with his stepfather. Introduction by his editor Paul Williams. Afterword by [[Samuel R. Delany]]. Cover art by [[Paul Williams (Crawdaddy! creator)#Family|Donna Nassar]]. The memoir, written for his psychotherapist, has many suggestions about his life, starting from his family's move from Staten Island to Philadelphia when his stepfather got a job at Drexel University and Sturgeon and his brother were still in the local public school to their attempts to catch poison ivy to delay the move—"Then we moved to Philadelphia, a little apartment on 34 Street with a sort of sun room, which was Argyll's study and had a single couch which was his and Mother's bed, and a kind of living room with a kitchenette built into one wall, where we slept on the floor on mattresses."— and his father's treatment of a puppy he couldn't discipline—". . . he used to whip her with a wire after rubbing her nose in it—so he got rid of her." (p. 14). These go on to include Sturgeon's first gay experiences in his 14th year—"So [20-year-old] Bert blew me practically continuously from Friday evening until dinner time Sunday; we kept score and I came 14 times. Sweet are the uses of respectability. My God! It never occurred to me until this minute that Dr. Taft was probably the one—the only one, as sole mentor, who could possibly have insured Argyll's total ignorance!" (p.&nbsp;52); and in his long letter to his mother and Argyll, included in the same volume, Sturgeon harshly critiques his first novel, ''[[The Dreaming Jewels]]'': "My use of one detested Argyll would have been fine, but one wasn't enough; there had to be two, and as a result the balance of the work was destroyed and its literary worth was lost in vengeful polemic" (p. 62).

[[Kurt Vonnegut]] likely based the name of his fictional science-fiction writer [[Kilgore Trout]] on Sturgeon's name.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Link | first1=Eric Carl | last2=Canavan | first2=Gerry | title=The Cambridge companion to American science fiction | publication-place=New York, NY | date=2015 | isbn=978-1-107-28060-1 | oclc=902771331 | doi = 10.1017/CCO9781107280601}}</ref> They became friends when Sturgeon moved to [[Truro, Massachusetts]].

[[Category:PeopleWriters from Staten Island]]

[[Category:WeirdAmerican weird fiction writers]]