Jack Finney
Jack Finney was an American author born on October 2, 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Initially named Walter Braden Finney, he was affectionately called "Jack" throughout his life. He graduated from Knox College and began his career in New York City, where he worked in advertising and began publishing his writing. Finney gained recognition for his short stories in the mid-20th century, winning a contest for his first known story, "The Widow's Walk," in 1946.
His notable works include the science fiction classic "The Body Snatchers," which became widely known through its film adaptations as "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Finney is also celebrated for "Time and Again," a novel exploring time travel, which established him as a cult favorite among fans of the genre. Over his career, he contributed to various periodicals and wrote several novels and screenplays, many of which were adapted into films during the 1950s and 1960s. Finney was awarded the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1987 and published his final novel, "From Time to Time," in 1995. He passed away on November 14, 1995, at the age of eighty-four.
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Jack Finney
Writer
- Born: October 2, 1911
- Place of Birth: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Died: November 14, 1995
- Place of Death: Greenbrae, California
Biography
John Finney was born on October 2, 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At the age of three, he was legally renamed Walter Braden Finney, in honor of his father, who died in 1914, but he was called “Jack,” the diminutive of his original name, throughout his life. His mother, a seamstress and woodworker, remarried. His stepfather, Frank Berry, was employed with the railroads and later worked for a phone company in Illinois.
Finney graduated from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, in the early 1930s, and afterward went to New York City to work for an advertising agency. His first known short story, “The Widow’s Walk,” won an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine–sponsored contest in 1946. Finney then began to regularly contribute stories and articles to popular periodicals such as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and Saturday Evening Post. While in New York, he married Marguerite Guest, and the couple later had two children, Kenneth and Marguerite.
In the early 1950s, Finney and his family moved to Marin County, California, eventually settling in Mill Valley. His first novel, Five Against the House (1954), was a crime caper story about a group of friends who attempt to rob a Reno casino. The novel was adapted as a motion picture in 1955. That same year, Finney published his best-known novel, The Body Snatchers, which was subsequently adapted for the screen as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) (as well as various remakes). The novel (itself often later retitled to follow the film version) is a science fiction tale about pods from outer space who replicate and replace humans in an attempt to conquer Earth; the concept would go on to become a classic science-fiction and horror trope. During the same decade, Finney also wrote scripts for Science Fiction Theater, a television series. Several other Finney novels also served as the basis for films in the 1950s and 1960s, including the thrillers The House of Numbers (1957) and Assault on a Queen (1959), and a comedy, Good Neighbor Sam (1963).
The work that elevated Finney to cult status was his seventh novel, Time and Again (1970), in which a New York City advertising man, Simon Morley, is recruited for a secret government project aimed at achieving time travel. The possibility of journeying back and forth in time was a frequent theme in his fiction, as illustrated in his short story collections The Clock of Time (1958), and About Time (1986), and in his nonfiction Forgotten News: The Crime of the Century, and Other Lost Stories (1983), which deals with real events of the nineteenth century.
In 1987, Finney was honored with the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. He published his last novel, From Time to Time, in 1995. This sequel to Time and Again once again featured protagonist Morley in a time travel adventure. Finney died on November 14, 1995, of pneumonia and emphysema at the age of eighty-four.
Adrian, Jack. "Obituary: Jack Finney." The Independent, 20 Nov. 1995, www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-jack-finney-1582852.html. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Corrigan, Maureen. "The Sad Lesson of Body Snatchers: People Change." Review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney. NPR, 17 Oct. 2011, www.npr.org/2011/10/17/141416427/the-sad-lesson-of-body-snatchers-people-change. Accessed 13 June 2024.
Grimes, William. "Jack Finney, 84, Sci-Fi Author of Time-Travel Tales, Dies." The New York Times, 17 Nov. 1995, www.nytimes.com/1995/11/17/nyregion/jack-finney-84-sci-fi-author-of-time-travel-tales-dies.html. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Seabrook, Jack. Stealing through Time: On the Writings of Jack Finney. McFarland, 2006.
Streitfeld, David. "The Invisible Man." The Washington Post, 13 Feb. 1994, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1994/02/13/the-invisible-man/7a9a7bb7-4c76-43dd-be36-ca93989fd3d6/. Accessed 13 June 2024.