Randall Garrett
Gordon Randall Garrett was an American author born on December 16, 1927, in Lexington, Missouri. He earned a bachelor's degree from Texas Tech University and served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, later working as an industrial chemist in Michigan and Illinois. Garrett began his writing career in the 1950s, producing a significant amount of short fiction using various pseudonyms, which has made compiling a complete bibliography challenging. His early works often emphasized "idea fiction," where concepts took precedence over character and plot, resulting in entertaining yet sometimes superficial stories.
By the 1970s, Garrett gained recognition for his Lord Darcy series, a fantasy detective collection set in an alternate universe where magic and the Plantagenet monarchy coexist. This series is notable for its intricate portrayal of magic's societal impacts, drawing parallels to historical revolutions. While Garrett's output declined in the late 1970s due to health issues, the quality of his work improved, culminating in his passing on December 31, 1987. Posthumously, other authors have attempted to expand the Lord Darcy universe, although with varying levels of success.
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Randall Garrett
Writer
- Born: December 16, 1927
- Birthplace: Lexington, Missouri
- Died: December 31, 1987
- Place of death: Waco, Texas
Biography
Gordon Randall Garrett was born in Lexington, Missouri, on December 16, 1927. He received a bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. In civilian life he pursued a career as an industrial chemist in Battle Creek, Michigan, and Peoria, Illinois, while he worked on developing a sufficient reputation for his writing to become a full-time writer. He married Vicki Ann Heydron.
During the 1950’s, he produced large amounts of short fiction under various pseudonyms for the various magazines that were popular at that time. As a result, developing a complete bibliography for Garrett can be difficult, as some of his work was written under “house names” that were used by several different authors. Most of this early work was what is known in the trade as “idea fiction,” that is, works in which characterization and plot are subordinated to the exploration of a concept, often the extrapolation of a scientific concept.
Although some of his work from this period was superficial and gave the impression of having been pounded out quickly to pay the rent, every one of his stories is an entertaining read. More than once he would take standard tropes of science fiction and stand them on their heads in ways that might be at once both shocking and amusing. By the 1970’s, he had become sufficiently well known in the writing world to successfully market his real interest, the Lord Darcy series.
The Lord Darcy series is a fantasy detective series set in an alternate universe in which not only the Plantagenets continue to rule England and much of France, but magic is also real and has carefully thought-out effects on both history and society. Unlike such worlds as the Harry Potter series, in which magic exists in a corner separate from the regular world and has little effect upon it, the systematization of magic in the Lord Darcy universe has worked its changes throughout society in ways that parallel the effects of the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions in our world. Many of the Lord Darcy stories are locked-room murder mysteries, and often are parodies or homages to famous mainstream detectives.
By the later 1970’s, Garrett’s production went into decline due to ill health, but the quality of what he did produce went up, perhaps because he had more time to work on each piece. He died on December 31, 1987. Other authors have attempted to write additional stories in his Lord Darcy universe with his estate’s permission, although their success has been less than complete.