Norman Richard Spinrad
born New York, New York: 15 September 1940
Norman Spinrad is an American author of science fiction as novels and short stories, a TV and film screenwriter, and author of creative writing non-fiction.
Spinrad's first published SF was The Last of the Romany (1963) in Analog magazine. His first published novel was The Solarians (1966). Unlike his later later work, this novel was pure unadulterated space opera.
He struggled to get Bug Jack Barron published as a novel, so it was first serialised by Michael Moorcock in New Worlds magazine in 1969. He made his impact with this book, which shocked many in SFF world with its obscenity and immorality depicted in a near future world of political corruption, and for the poor treatment of women. It so shocked the “UK moral establishment" that he was denounced in Parliament, and New Worlds magazine was banned by the newsagents WH Smith. The controversy it created followed him throughout his career.
In his next novel The Iron Dream (1972), an alternative history, his intention was clearly to offend as many people as was possible. This tale features a version of Adolf Hitler who is frustrated as a politician and emigrates to the USA to become a pulp fiction author.
He wrote the script for the Star Trek: TOS episode The Doomsday Machine (1967), an unproduced script for Star Trek: Phase II, and episodes for Land of the Lost and Werewolf.
Spinrad was credited as a writer on the feature films, The Red Siren and Druids.
The Druid King (2003) is a historical novel about the conflict between Vercingetorix and the Roman Empire.
His SF books often feature future Utopias which are thwarted by fascists or with other very bleak views of the future course of the world. These were often at odds with other authors of the time who were writing much more uplifting tales of future history. In hindsight, some of these works often show uncanny premonitions.
In A World Between (1979) he features man-hating lesbian Femocrats; in Russian Spring (1991), the USSR is liberated by perestroika, just prior to it’s real life collapse; in Journals of the Plague Years (1988) fighting a pandemic is hindered US Pharma companies, and in Greenhouse Summer (1999) it is climate change sceptics who hinder action.
Deus X (1993) is a book that features an early venture into Cyberspace, mixed together with a prediction of how the USA would respond to a terror attack, and the revelations of the Pope.
His work has been described as “savage, sarcastic, self-indulgent, and rampageous.”
In an interview in February 1999, he said, “People don't believe the future will be a better place. And that is very scary.”
A list of his works is to be found here: Summary Bibliography: Norman Spinrad
Wikipedia page: Norman Spinrad - Wikipedia
born New York, New York: 15 September 1940
Norman Spinrad is an American author of science fiction as novels and short stories, a TV and film screenwriter, and author of creative writing non-fiction.
Spinrad's first published SF was The Last of the Romany (1963) in Analog magazine. His first published novel was The Solarians (1966). Unlike his later later work, this novel was pure unadulterated space opera.
He struggled to get Bug Jack Barron published as a novel, so it was first serialised by Michael Moorcock in New Worlds magazine in 1969. He made his impact with this book, which shocked many in SFF world with its obscenity and immorality depicted in a near future world of political corruption, and for the poor treatment of women. It so shocked the “UK moral establishment" that he was denounced in Parliament, and New Worlds magazine was banned by the newsagents WH Smith. The controversy it created followed him throughout his career.
In his next novel The Iron Dream (1972), an alternative history, his intention was clearly to offend as many people as was possible. This tale features a version of Adolf Hitler who is frustrated as a politician and emigrates to the USA to become a pulp fiction author.
He wrote the script for the Star Trek: TOS episode The Doomsday Machine (1967), an unproduced script for Star Trek: Phase II, and episodes for Land of the Lost and Werewolf.
Spinrad was credited as a writer on the feature films, The Red Siren and Druids.
The Druid King (2003) is a historical novel about the conflict between Vercingetorix and the Roman Empire.
His SF books often feature future Utopias which are thwarted by fascists or with other very bleak views of the future course of the world. These were often at odds with other authors of the time who were writing much more uplifting tales of future history. In hindsight, some of these works often show uncanny premonitions.
In A World Between (1979) he features man-hating lesbian Femocrats; in Russian Spring (1991), the USSR is liberated by perestroika, just prior to it’s real life collapse; in Journals of the Plague Years (1988) fighting a pandemic is hindered US Pharma companies, and in Greenhouse Summer (1999) it is climate change sceptics who hinder action.
Deus X (1993) is a book that features an early venture into Cyberspace, mixed together with a prediction of how the USA would respond to a terror attack, and the revelations of the Pope.
His work has been described as “savage, sarcastic, self-indulgent, and rampageous.”
In an interview in February 1999, he said, “People don't believe the future will be a better place. And that is very scary.”
A list of his works is to be found here: Summary Bibliography: Norman Spinrad
Wikipedia page: Norman Spinrad - Wikipedia
