Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle was an influential American science fiction author and political thinker, born in 1933 in Shreveport, Louisiana. After serving in the Korean War, he pursued higher education, earning degrees in psychology and political science from the University of Washington. Pournelle had a diverse career, initially working as an aviation psychologist and systems engineer before transitioning to academia as a professor at Pepperdine University. He published his first novel, "A Spaceship for the King," in 1972 and went on to write over thirty novels, often in collaboration with fellow author Larry Niven. His works frequently explored military themes and reflected his conservative political views, engaging with contemporary issues like technology and defense strategies. Alongside his fiction, Pournelle contributed to the field of technology journalism with his column "Chaos Manor" in Byte magazine. Throughout his career, he received several prestigious awards for his literary contributions. Pournelle passed away in 2017 at the age of eighty-four.
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Jerry Pournelle
- Born: August 7, 1933
- Birthplace: Shreveport, Louisiana
- Died: September 8, 2017
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Biography
Science fiction author Jerry Eugene Pournelle was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1933. His father was a radio station executive and his mother was a teacher, and the family moved to Tennessee when he was young. He served in the Korean War, and then briefly attended the University of Iowa before transferring to the University of Washington, where he worked as a research assistant and earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1955. Remaining at UW, he received his master’s in psychology in 1957, followed quickly by a PhD in political science. Upon completing his PhD, Pournelle became an aviation psychologist and systems engineer for the Aerospace Corporation in San Bernardino, California. He married reading specialist Roberta Jane Isdell, with whom he had four sons. In 1964, Pournelle left Aerospace Corporation to be the manager of special studies at North American Aviation. After a year, he moved to American Rockwell Corporation, where he served as a research specialist and proposal manager. A year later, Pournelle made a major career change and became a professor of history and political science at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles.
Pournelle published his first science fiction novel, A Spaceship for the King, in 1972; it was rereleased in 1980 as King David’s Spaceship. This was the first of more than thirty novels that Pournelle would write, nineteen of which were collaborations. Many of Pournelle’s collaborative efforts were written with author Larry Niven, beginning with The Mote in God’s Eye (1974). Other notable titles with Niven are Lucifer’s Hammer (1977), Oath of Fealty (1981), and The Gripping Hand (1993). Four of Pournelle’s works were written with more than one collaborator, such as The Legacy of Heorot (1987) and The Dragons of Heorot (1995, also known as Beowulf’s Children), both written with Niven and Steven Barnes. Some of Pournelle’s popular solo works include Janissaries (1979), Falkenberg’s Legion (1990), and Prince of Mercanaries (2002); these reflect his preoccupation with military themes. Pournelle was well known to be a political conservative, befriending Republican luminaries such as Newt Gingrich and thinking deeply about topics like Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative and how to use technology to win the Cold War.
In addition to his novels and science-fiction stories, in 1980 Pournelle began writing a user review column for the computer magazine Byte, eventually called "Chaos Manor." In 2011, Pournelle and a number of other writers and editors from the by-then-defunct Byte launched a new website, aNewDomain, devoted to independent writing about science, technology, and politics. Pournelle has also produced several nonfiction books, including The Mathematics of the Energy Crisis (1978, with R. Gagliardi) and Pournelle’s PC Communications Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Productivity with a Modem (1992). Pournelle also edited twenty science fiction anthologies, most of them in collaboration with John F. Carr. Pournelle received many awards for his writing, beginning with the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 1973. This was followed by the Evans Freehafer Award, a Nebula Award nomination, an award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, a Hugo Award nomination, and an American Book Award nomination. He and Niven also won the 2005 Heinlein Society Award.
Pournelle died in 2017 of heart failure at the age of eighty-four, at his home in the Sudio City neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Bibliography
Genzlinger, Neil. "Jerry Pournelle, Science Fiction Novelist and Computer Guide, Dies at 84." The New York Times, 15 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/obituaries/jerry-pournelle-science-fiction-novelist-and-computer-guide-dies-at-84.html. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018.
Liptak, Andrew. "RIP Jerry Pournelle, the First Author to Write a Novel on a Computer." The Verge, 9 Sept. 2017, www.theverge.com/2017/9/9/16279582/jerry-pournelle-science-fiction-author-writing-computers-obituary. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018.
"Pournelle, Jerry." Science Fiction Encyclopedia, 29 Sept. 2017, www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/pournelle‗jerry. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018.
"Summary Bibliography: Jerry Pournelle." The Internet Speculative Fiction Database, www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1067. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018.