SCHMITZ, James H(enry)

(1911-1981)

   US writer born in Germany of US parents; he served with the USAF in WWII. His first story was "Greenface" for Unknown in 1943. From 1949, when "Agent of Vega" appeared in ASF as the first of 4 stories later assembled as Agent of Vega (coll of linked stories 1960), he regularly produced the kind of tale for which he remains most warmly remembered: SPACE-OPERA adventures, several featuring female HEROES depicted withminimum recourse to their "femininity" - they perform their active tasks, and save the Universe when necessary, in a manner almost completely free of sexual role-playing cliches.Most of his best work shares a roughly characterized common background, a Galaxy inhabited by humans and aliens with room for all and numerous opportunities for discoveries and reversals that carefully fall short of threatening the stability of that background. Many of his stories, as a result, focus less on moments of CONCEPTUALBREAKTHROUGH than on the pragmatic operations of teams and bureaux involved in maintaining the state of things against criminals, monsters and unfriendly species; in this they rather resemble the tales of Murray LEINSTER, though they are more vigorous and less inclined to punishadventurousness. PSI POWERS are often found. At the heart of this common Universe is the Federation of the Hub or the Overgovernment. The main Hubsequence is A Tale of Two Clocks (1962; vt Legacy 1979), A Nice Day for Screaming and Other Tales of the Hub (coll 1965), The Demon Breed (1968ASF; exp 1968) and A Pride of Monsters (coll 1970). The Telzey Amberdon books - The Universe Against Her (fixup 1964), The Telzey Toy (coll 1973) and The Lion Game (fixup 1973) - nestle conceptually within the Hub. Amberdon, a brilliant young telepath recruited by the Psychology Serviceof the Overgovernment as an agent, is perhaps JHS's most typical creation, and the stories in which she performs her activities are only marginally less appealing than his single finest novel, The Witches of Karres (1949 ASF; exp 1966), which features three Amberdon-like psi-powered juvenile"witches" and their rescue from slavery by a space captain in whom they induce first apoplexy and second transcendence - for he too finds superpowers within him.One novel, The Eternal Frontiers (1973), is set outside this common background; it fails to delight. The Best of James H. Schmitz (coll 1991) ed Mark L. Olson is a good conspectus. It may be thatJHS's work is too pleasing to have seemed revolutionary, and indeed-with the exception of his choice of protagonists - it plays very safe with conventions; but for nearly 40 years he succeeded in demonstrating, modestly and competently, that the template of space opera could provide continuing joy.

   JC

   About the author: James H. Schmitz: A Bibliography (1973) by Mark OWINGS, with intro by Janet KAGAN.

   See also: CHILDREN IN SF; ECOLOGY; ESP; LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS; SUPERMAN.