Robert Sheckley
Robert Sheckley was a notable American science fiction author, born in New York City on July 16, 1928. His academic journey was briefly interrupted by his service in the U.S. Army after World War II. After completing his degree at New York University in 1951, Sheckley began his writing career, initially taking on various day jobs and scriptwriting for television. He gained recognition with the publication of his first novel, "Immortality Delivered," in 1958, reissued the following year as "Immortality, Inc.," establishing him as a sharp wit and satirist.
Throughout his career, Sheckley explored themes of violence and societal norms, particularly in his Victim series, which features a dystopian future where individuals engage in deadly games for societal exemptions. He was also known for his satirical take on military science fiction in contributions to the "Bill the Galactic Hero" series. His collaborative works with Roger Zelazny added a unique twist to traditional fairy tales, and he served as the fiction editor for Omni magazine during the early 1980s. Sheckley's innovative storytelling and humor have left a lasting impact on the genre of science fiction.
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Robert Sheckley
Author
- Born: June 16, 1928
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: December 9, 2005
- Place of death: Poughkeepsie, New York
Biography
Robert Sheckley was born in New York City on July 16, 1928. His education was interrupted by service in the United States Army in the years immediately following World War II. When he returned to civilian life, he attended New York University, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1951. He married Jay Rothbell.
After a variety of rather unremarkable day jobs and some work- for-hire assignments writing scripts for the Captain Video television series, Sheckley began selling short stories. In 1958 he published his first novel, Immortality Delivered, which would be reissued the following year in a revised edition as Immortality, Inc. With it he quickly established himself as a consummate wit and satirist, not afraid to poke fun at the foibles of human society.
For the next several years he produced primarily mystery fiction, particularly the Stephen Dain series, but also various other mainstream works. Sheckley made his mark with his Victim series, which he began publishing in the 1980’s, and which dealt with a future world where a strange sort of gladiatorial rite has developed. On an island, people who agree to participate hunt one another. Those winners who successfully kill a set number of fellow players without themselves being killed are rewarded not only with money, but also with significant exemptions from the legal and social expectations of their society. In it, he explores the issues of the role of violence and of risk in social interactions, and the way in which a society may deal with those urges.
In his contribution to the Bill the Galactic Hero series, Sheckley openly and blatantly satirized military science fiction, particularly Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. In addition, he wrote several collaborations with Roger Zelazny, beginning with Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming. As the title suggests, these three novels were in the vein of the “fractured fairy tale,” in which fairy-tale motifs are stood on their heads and treated in completely unexpected ways In addition to his own writing, Sheckley was the fiction editor of Omni from 1980 to 1982, and was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the 1982 school year.