R. A. Lafferty
R. A. Lafferty, born Raphael Aloysius Lafferty on November 7, 1914, in Neola, Iowa, was an influential American author known for his unique contributions to the science fiction genre. His Irish American heritage and upbringing in a conservative Roman Catholic environment deeply influenced his storytelling, which often incorporates elements of folklore and moral inquiry. After serving in the South Pacific during World War II, Lafferty returned to a sales career but did not begin writing until the late 1950s, with his first short story published in 1959.
Over the next decade, he became a prolific writer with more than a hundred stories featured in various science fiction magazines. His first novel, *Past Master*, was published in 1968 and garnered nominations for prestigious awards, marking the start of a successful writing career. Lafferty's work, often characterized as a blend of surrealism and humor, features a moral undertone that reflects on the importance of retaining clear ethical values in society. He was awarded the Hugo Prize for his story "Eurema's Dam" and received the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990. Lafferty passed away on March 18, 2002, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate within the realms of speculative fiction.
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R. A. Lafferty
Fiction Writer
- Born: November 7, 1914
- Birthplace: Neola, Iowa
- Died: March 18, 2002
- Place of death: Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Biography
Raphael Aloysius Lafferty (his fellow writers called him “Ray”) was born on November 7, 1914, in Neola, Iowa. His father, oil-lease broker Hugh David Lafferty, and his mother, Julia Mary (Burke) Lafferty, were both first-generation Irish Americans, and the influence of the Irish storytelling tradition, as well as the conservative Roman Catholic faith, are obvious in his fiction. Upon finishing high school, Lafferty attended the University of Tulsa for one year, dropping out in 1933. In 1935, as the United States emerged from the Depression, he found a permanent career as an electrical wholesaler with Clark Electrical Supply Company. During World War II, Lafferty shipped to the South Pacific in 1942, where he saw action in New Guinea and advanced to the rank of staff sergeant by the time he was discharged in 1946.
Returning to his sales position at Clark after the war, Lafferty showed no signs of becoming a writer until more than a decade later, when his first short story, “The Wagons,” was published in The New Mexico Quarterly Review in 1959. Over the next decade more than a hundred Lafferty stories appeared in science-fiction magazines, mostly in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Having mastered the short story, Lafferty turned to longer fiction in 1968 with immediate success. His debut novel, Past Master (1968), was nominated for both a Nebula Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, and a Hugo Award, but received neither. The following year, his fourth novel, Fourth Mansions (1969), based on the Catholic classic The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila, also received a Nebula nomination, as did The Devil is Dead (1971). In 1973, he won a Hugo for his short story “Eurema’s Dam.” He received the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award in 1990.
While most of Lafferty’s works are usually considered science fiction (though some readers have questioned that classification), he also wrote four historical novels. The last of these, Half a Sky (1984) was incomplete when Lafferty suffered a stroke; it was completed by editors, and proved to be Lafferty’s last writing, although his agent and sympathetic small publishers were able to cobble together several volumes of magazine material through the 1990’s. “Ray” Lafferty died on March 18, 2002. On September, 1, 2002, a jury of fellow science-fiction writers posthumously awarded him the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award.
Lafferty’s style was praised by his fellow writers, who found it difficult to categorize. While found in science-fiction periodicals and imprints, Lafferty stories read more like tall tales, both in the tradition of the American West and of Irish legend. Many readers call his fiction surreal, but it is a cartoon-like surrealism, as funny as a good cartoon, but with a greater moral seriousness beneath the humor. The central moral idea of his stories is a dark one, suggesting that the greatest threat to human survival was the loss of clear moral values.