J. F. Bone
Jesse Franklin Bone, known as J. F. Bone, was an American veterinarian and science fiction writer born on June 15, 1916, in Tacoma, Washington. He pursued higher education at Washington State University, obtaining a B.A. in 1937, followed by military service during World War II, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war, Bone completed a B.S. in biology and a D.V.M., eventually becoming a respected professor at Oregon State University. His foray into writing began with a professional column in Modern Veterinary Practice, which led him to publish his first science fiction story, "Triggerman," in 1958, earning a nomination for a Hugo Award.
Over two decades, Bone published five novels and a dozen short stories, with his most notable works including "The Lani People," which featured an interplanetary veterinarian. His background in veterinary medicine lent authenticity to his speculative writing. In addition to his fiction, Bone authored several influential veterinary textbooks. Throughout his career, he was an advocate for the rights of writers, particularly concerning intellectual property issues. J. F. Bone passed away in 1986 at the age of 70, leaving a legacy in both veterinary medicine and science fiction literature.
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J. F. Bone
Fiction and Nonfiction
- Born: June 15, 1916
- Birthplace: Tacoma, Washington
- Died: October 1, 1986
Biography
Jesse Franklin Bone, veterinarian turned science-fiction writer, was born June 15, 1916, in Tacoma, Washington. Except for six years of military service, he spent his entire life in the Pacific Northwest where his father, Homer Truett Bone, was a United States senator. In 1933, Bone entered Washington State University, where he received a B.A. in 1937, just before joining the U.S. Army. With his college degree, he entered as an officer, and with World War II prolonging his service, Bone rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He married Jayne M. Clark in 1942, with whom he had one daughter. The marriage ended in divorce in 1946. Continuing service in the Army Reserve after the war, Bone also returned to his alma mater, where he received a B.S. in biology in 1949, and his D.V.M. in 1950.
While most of his classmates in the veterinary program opened private practices, Bone turned to teaching. He was hired right out of graduate school by Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, where he remained until the end of his life. In Oregon, he married in 1950 a fellow teacher, Felizitas Margarete Endter, with whom he had a son and a daughter.
As a promising young expert in veterinary medicine, Bone was invited in 1957 to write a column in the professional magazine Modern Veterinary Practice, which he continued for ten years. With the success of his first column, Bone knew he had found a second career as a writer. In 1958 he published his first science fiction story, “Triggerman,” which was an immediate success, nominated for a Hugo Award. Despite continuing to publish science fiction for another twenty years, Bone would never win a Hugo.
J. F. Bone, as his science fiction byline read, was not prolific by science fiction standards: in twenty years he published five novels and a dozen short stories. The reason is obvious: he was never a full-time science fiction writer, enjoying a successful career as a college professor and writer of veterinary textbooks that would remain standards well after his death: Canine Medicine (1959), which went into a second edition in 1962; Animal Anatomy (1958), which went through four editions; and Equine Medicine and Surgery (1963).
J.F. Bone’s first novel, The Lani People (1962), about an interplanetary veterinarian, was a popular success. His veterinary training gave his descriptions of alien life forms believability. One index of its importance as a science fiction perennial was its inclusion in 2000 in the Gutenberg Project, which digitized books for Internet access. It would be another fourteen years before Bone completed another novel, but then he produced four in quick succession: Legacy (1976), The Meddlers (1976), The Gift of the Manti (1977, with Ray Myers), and Confederation Matador (1978). As chair of the board of governers at Oregon State University Press, Bone fought against “fair use” copyright legislation which would deprive professional writers (like himself) of their intellectual property rights. In 1986, J.F. Bone died at the age of 70.