DICKSON, Gordon R(upert)

(1923-)

   Canadian-born writer, resident in the USA since age 13 and long a US citizen. He was educated (along with Poul ANDERSON) at the University of Minnesota, taking his BA in English in 1948, and remains in Minnesota. Through the Minneapolis Fantasy Society, which he re-established after WWII, he became friends with Anderson, with whom he later collaborated on the Hoka series - Earthman's Burden (coll 1957), Star Prince Charlie (1975) and Hoka! (coll 1982) - and with Clifford D. SIMAK. Along with these writers, GRD has shown a liking, often indulged, for hinterland settings peopled by solid farming or small-town stock whose ideologies, when expressed, violate any simple, conservative-liberal polarity, though urban readers and critics tend to respond to them as right-wing. As late as Wolf and Iron (1974 FSF as "In Iron Years"; much exp 1990) - which embodies a SURVIVALIST plot considerably deepened by the author's detailed and compassionate attachment to the kind of hero who understands and loves the physical world - he was still mining this fertile venue.GRD began publishing sf in 1950 with "Trespass" for Fantastic Story Quarterly, written with Anderson, and he has since been a prolific and consistent short-story author; much of this material was assembled in the 1980s in volumes like The Man from Earth (coll 1983), Dickson! (coll 1984; rev vt Steel Brother 1985) and Forward! (coll 1985), the latter ed Sandra MIESEL, long an advocate of his works.GRD's first novel, Alien from Arcturus (1956 dos; rev vt Arcturus Landing 1979), established from an early date the tone of underlying and rather relentless seriousness which became so marked in later works, while at the same time succumbing to a tendency to displace emotional intensities from human relations between the sexes to those obtaining between human and dependent ALIEN (or, as in Wolf and Iron, Terran mammal). The aliens in Alien from Arcturus are decidedly cuddly, with shining black noses, and much resemble those who appear in Space Winners (1965), a juvenile, and The Alien Way (1965), about an Earthman's telepathic rapport with the representative of a species that may invade. But the strong narrative skills deployed in these comparatively rudimentary SPACE-OPERA tales, along with an idiomatic capacity to write novel-length fiction, has ensured the survival of these relatively unambitious works. Some later singletons - like Sleepwalker's World (1971), a dystopian vision of OVERPOPULATION, and The R-Master (1973; rev vt The Last Master 1983), in which a society is ambiguously guided by a saviour whose origins lie more in PULP-MAGAZINE ideas than in philosophy-failed to maintain the elation of the earlier books.While continuing to produce prolifically in the 1950s and 1960s, GRD simultaneously engaged upon a sequence of novels which was to occupy much of his energy for decades. The ongoing Childe Cycle - the sf volumes of which are often known as the Dorsai series - is intended to present an evolutionary blueprint, in highly dramatized fictional terms, for humanity's ultimate expansion through the Galaxy, as an inherently ethical species. "In order to make this type of story work effectively," GRD has said, "I developed by the late 1950s a new fictional pattern that I have called the 'consciously thematic story'. This was specifically designed to create an unconscious involvement of the reader with the philosophical thematic argument that the story action renders and demonstrates. Because this new type of story has represented a pattern hitherto unknown to readers and writers, my work has historically been criticized in terms that do not apply to it - primarily as if it were drama alone." However, though GRD originally planned to present his thesis through a phased publication of the entire sequence - to include at least three historical titles and three contemporary novels as well as the several books set in the future - only the Dorsai books have yet been released, and the full integrity of GRD's argument remains, therefore, undemonstrated.In rough order of internal chronology, the Childe Cycle comprises (1995): Necromancer (1962; vt No Room for Man 1963), The Tactics of Mistake (1971), Soldier, Ask Not (1964 Gal; exp 1967), the short form of which won a HUGO for 1964, and The Genetic General (1959 ASF as "Dorsai!"; cut 1960 dos; text restored vt DORSAI! 1976), all but Soldier, Ask Not being assembled as Three to Dorsai! (omni 1975); The Spirit of Dorsai (coll of linked stories 1979) and Lost Dorsai (coll of linked stories 1980; rev 1988 UK), whose title story won a 1981 Hugo, most of both volumes being reassembled with some material preceding The Genetic General as The Dorsai Companion (coll of linked stories 1986); and a final grouping of texts, all set about 100 years further into the future: the overlong Young Bleys (1991), Other (1994),The Final Encyclopedia (1984) and The Chantry Guild (1988), the last volume - GRD claimed as early as 1983 - being hived off from a projected final volume to be called Childe. As the sequence develops, human space is divided into four spheres plus Old Earth herself, with her vast genetic pool; Dorsai, whose inhabitants are bred as professional soldiers; the Exotic worlds, whose inhabitants are bred to creative (sometimes sybaritic) mind-arts; the worlds (like Newton) which emphasize physical science; and the God-haunted Friendly worlds, where folk are bred for faith. The task of mankind's genetic elite is somehow to merge these variant strains, and the philosophical burden of the sequence tends to be conveyed through plots whose origins lie unabashedly in the SUPERMAN tales of earlier sf. The Genetic General, which in its restored form remains the most arousing of these, features Donal Graeme, the central incarnation of a triune evolutionary superman whose earlier life is told in Necromancer, and who is reborn as Hal Mayne to climax the series - and the genetic elitism it promulgates - through its final (to date) volumes. The terms GRD uses to describe his superman's capacities - Graeme, for instance, being capable of a potent sort of cognitive intuition - are perhaps best appreciated within the massive, ongoing rhythm of the series; for it is as a novelist, not as a philosopher, that GRD reveals his strength.Very little of GRD's later fiction, however hastily written some of it may seem, fails to pose questions and arguments about humankind's fundamental nature. From 1960 much of his work has specifically reflected his preoccupation with the concept that humankind is inevitably driven to higher evolutionary states, a notion often expressed, however, in tales - like None But Man (1969; with 1 story added, as coll 1989) or Hour of the Horde (1970) - that contrast humankind's indomitable spirit with that of ALIENS whose lack of comparable elan makes them into straw horses for Homo sapiens to defeat. More serious presentations of material - from the fine Timestorm (fixup 1977) on to ponderous later tales like Way of the Pilgrim (1980 ASF as "The Cloak and the Staff"; much exp 1987) - do generally avoid the graver pitfalls of pulp. Though his sometimes unremitting use of genre conventions to provide solutions to serious arguments has undoubtedly retarded full recognition of his talent and seriousness, the later volumes of the Childe Cycle series increasingly enforce a more measured response to his life work.GRD won the NEBULA for Best Novelette with "Call Him Lord" (1966). He was President of the SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA 1969-71. In 1981, he won Hugos not only for "Lost Dorsai" but also for a short story, "The Cloak and the Staff".

   JC

   Other works: Mankind on the Run (1956 dos; vt On the Run 1979); Time to Teleport (1955 Science Fiction Stories as "No More Barriers"; 1960 chap dos) and Delusion World (1955 Science Fiction Stories as "Perfectly Adjusted"; exp 1961 dos), both later published in omnibus format (omni 1981); the Dilbia series, comprising Spacial Delivery (1961 dos) and Spacepaw (1969); Naked to the Stars (1961); the Underseas series, later assembled as Secrets of the Deep (omni 1985) and comprising Secret Under the Sea (1960), Secret Under Antarctica (1963) and Secret Under the Caribbean (1964); Mission to Universe (1965; rev 1977); Planet Run (1967; rev as coll with 2 stories added, vt Planet Run, Plus Two Bonus Stories 1982) with Keith LAUMER; The Space Swimmers (1967), which serves as a sequel to Home from the Shore (1963 Gal; exp 1978); Wolfling (1969); Mutants: A Science Fiction Adventure (coll 1970), in which the stories are linked thematically; Danger-Human (coll 1970; vt The Book of Gordon R. Dickson 1973); The Pritcher Mass (1972); The Outposter (1972); The Day the Sun Stood Still (anth 1972), a common-theme anthology with Poul Anderson and Robert SILVERBERG; The Star Road (coll 1973); Alien Art (1973), a juvenile, later assembled with Arcturus Landing as Alien Art; Arcturus Landing (omni 1978); Ancient, My Enemy (coll 1974); Gremlins, Go Home! (1974), a juvenile with Ben BOVA; The Lifeship (1976; vt Lifeboat 1978 UK) with Harry HARRISON; the Dragon and the George fantasy sequence comprising The Dragon and the George (as "St Dragon and the George" FSF 1957; exp 1976), The Dragon Knight (1990), The Dragon on the Border (1992), The Dragon at War (1993) and The Dragon, the Earl and the Troll (1994) Gordon R. Dickson's SF Best (coll 1978; exp vt In the Bone 1987); The Far Call (1978), a rare NEAR FUTURE tale of the space programme; Pro (1978); Masters of Everon (1979); In Iron Years (coll 1980); Love Not Human (coll 1981); Survival! (coll 1984); Jamie the Red (1984) with Roland GREEN; Beyond the Dar al-Harb (coll 1985); Invaders! (coll 1985); The Man the Worlds Rejected (coll 1986); The Last Dream (coll 1986); Mindspan (coll 1986) ed Sandra Miesel; The Forever Man (1986); Stranger (coll 1986); Guided Tour (coll 1988); Beginnings (coll 1988); Ends (coll 1988); The Earth Lords (1989).As Editor: Rod Serling's Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves (anth 1963); Rod Serling's Devils and Demons (anth 1967); Combat SF (anth 1975); Nebula Winners Twelve (anth 1978); the War and Honor sequence of SHARED-WORLD anthologies, beginning with The Harriers * (anth 1991) and The Harriers \#2: Blood and Honor * (anth 1993); Robot Warriors (anth 1991).

   About the author: Gordon R. Dickson: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1983) by Raymond H. Thompson; Gordon Rupert Dickson, First Dorsai: A Working Bibliography (latest edn 1990 chap) by Gordon BENSON Jr and Phil STEPHENSEN-PAYNE.

   See also: ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION; CANADA; CHILDREN'S SF; COMPUTERS; CYBORGS; ECOLOGY; ECONOMICS; EVOLUTION; GALACTIC EMPIRES; GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION; HUMOUR; INVASION; LINGUISTICS; MATHEMATICS; PARALLEL WORLDS; POLITICS; PSI POWERS; ROBERT HALE LIMITED; SPACESHIPS; TIME TRAVEL; UNDER THE SEA; WAR; WEAPONS.