Damon Knight

{{Short description|American science fiction writer, editor and critic (1922–2002)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Damon Knight

| image =

| imagesize =

| caption = Damon Knight

| pseudonym = Conanight, Stuart Fleming{{efn|Futurians Chester Cohen and Knight used the name Conanight jointly for two 1942 illustrations. Knight wrote three 1943–1944 short stories as Stuart Fleming.}}

| birth_name = Damon Francis Knight

| birth_date = {{birth date|1922|09|19}}

| birth_place = Baker City, Oregon, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2002|04|15|1922|09|19}}

| death_place = Eugene, Oregon, U.S.

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Author
editor
critic

}}

| period = 1940–2002

| genre = Science fiction, primarily short stories

| subject =

| movement =

| notableworks =

| spouse = {{plainlist|

}}

| signature =

| website = {{URL|DamonKnightLibrary.com}}

}}

File:If 195501.jpg]]

File:Galaxy 196304.jpg]]

Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He is the author of "To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for The Twilight Zone.Stanyard, Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone, p. 51. He was married to fellow writer Kate Wilhelm.

Biography

Knight was born in Baker City, Oregon, in 1922, and grew up in Hood River, Oregon. He entered science-fiction fandom at the age of eleven and published two issues of a fanzine titled Snide.{{cite web|last=Battistella|first=Edwin|title=Damon Knight (1922-2002)|url=http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/knight_damon_1922_2002_/|publisher=The Oregon Encyclopedia|access-date=31 July 2012}}

Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories.Knight, "Knight Piece," Brian W. Aldiss & Harry Harrison, Hell's Cartographers, Orbit Books, 1976, p. 105. His first story, "The Itching Hour", appeared in the Summer 1940 number of Futuria Fantasia, edited and published by Ray Bradbury. "Resilience" followed in the February 1941 number of Stirring Science Stories, edited by Donald A. Wollheim. An editorial error made the latter story's ending incomprehensible;Pohl, SFWA Grand Masters Volume Three, p. 202. it was reprinted in a 1978 magazine in four pages with a two-page introduction by Knight.

At the time of his first story sale he was living in New York and was a member of the Futurians. One of his short stories describes paranormal disruption of a science fiction fan group and contains cameo appearances of various Futurians and others under thinly-disguised names; for instance, non-Futurian SF writer H. Beam Piper is identified as "H. Dreyne Fifer".

Knight's forte was the short story; he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.{{cite book|title=The Best of Damon Knight|publisher=Nelson Doubleday|year=1976|editor-last=Malzberg|editor-first=Barry N.|editor-link=Barry N. Malzberg}}

To the general public he is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for The Twilight Zone. It won a 50-year Retro-Hugo in 2001 as the best short story of 1950. Knight was also a science fiction critic, a career which began when he wrote in 1945 that A. E. van Vogt "is not a giant as often maintained. He's only a pygmy who has learned to operate an overgrown typewriter." He ceased reviewing when Fantasy & Science Fiction refused to publish his review of Judith Merril's novel The Tomorrow People.{{Cite magazine

|last=Budrys

|first=Algis

|date=December 1967

|title=Galaxy Bookshelf

|url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v26n02_1967-12_modified#page/n113/mode/2up

|magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction

|pages=187–194

}}{{cite book |last1=Knight |first1=Damon |title=In Search of Wonder: Essays on Modern Science Fiction |chapter=Author's Notes; To the Second Edition |date=2016 |publisher=ReAnimus Press |location=Golden, Colorado |isbn=9781539833697 |pages=20, 260 |edition=3rd |quote=I resigned as F&SF{{'}}s book reviewer in 1960 because the then editor, now my agent and a good friend, declined to publish one of my reviews as written. (The review in question appears here for the first time, in Chapter 10 [The Tomorrow People].)}} These reviews were later collected in In Search of Wonder.

Algis Budrys wrote that Knight and "William Atheling Jr." (James Blish) had "transformed the reviewer's trade in the field",{{Cite magazine

|last=Budrys

|first=Algis

|date=June 1965

|title=Galaxy Bookshelf

|url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v23n05_1965-06#page/n163/mode/2up

|magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction

|pages=164–169

}} in Knight's case "without the guidance of his own prior example".{{r|budrys196712}} The term "idiot plot", a story that only functions because almost everyone in it is an idiot, became well known through Knight's frequent use of it in his reviews, though he believed the term was probably invented by Blish.Gary K. Wolfe, "Coming to Terms", in Gunn & Candelaria, Speculations on Speculation, p. 18. Knight's only non-Retro-Hugo Award was for "Best Reviewer" in 1956.

Knight was the founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA),{{cite web|url=http://www.sfwa.org/about/history-and-statistics/|title=Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America History and Statistics|publisher=Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc|access-date=1 October 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003123251/http://www.sfwa.org/about/history-and-statistics/|archive-date=3 October 2011}} cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation,{{cite web|url=http://www.n3f.org/N3Fhistory.shtml#2.13 |title=The History of N3F |publisher=The National Fantasy Fan Federation |access-date=1 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927112131/http://www.n3f.org/N3Fhistory.shtml |archive-date=27 September 2011 }} cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop,{{cite web|url=http://www.milfordsf.co.uk/history.htm|title=Milford History|publisher=Milford Speculative Fiction Writers|access-date=1 October 2011}} and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop.{{cite web|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/wilson_robin_scott|title=Robin Scott Wilson|publisher=Gollancz/SFE Ltd.|access-date=15 October 2011}} The SFWA officers and past presidents named Knight its 13th Grand Master in 1994 (presented 1995). After his death, the associated award was renamed the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award in his honor. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2003.

Until his death, Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his second wife, author Kate Wilhelm.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/17/obituaries/17KNIG.html|title=Damon Knight, 79, Writer and Editor of Science Fiction, Dies|date=17 April 2002|work=The New York Times}} His papers are held in the University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archive.{{Cite web|url=http://around.uoregon.edu/story/academics/celebrating-csws-40th-le-guin-feminist-science-fiction-fellowship|title = Celebrating CSWS 40th with the le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship|date = 7 July 2013}}

Selected works

=Novels=

Hell's Pavement (1955)
A for Anything (1961) (original version titled The People Maker, 1959)
Masters of Evolution (1959)
The Sun Saboteurs (1961)
Beyond the Barrier (1964)
Mind Switch (1965)
Double Meaning (1965)
The Earth Quarter (1970)
World without Children (1970)
The World and Thorinn (1980)
The Man in the Tree (1984)
CV (1985)
The Observers (1988)
A Reasonable World (1991)
God's Nose (1991)
Why Do Birds (1992)
Humpty Dumpty: An Oval (1996)

=Short stories and other writings=

"The Third Little Green Man" (1948)
"PS's Feature Flash" (1948)
"Not with a Bang" (1949)
"The Star Beast" (1949)
"To Serve Man" (1950)
"Ask Me Anything" (1951)
"Don't Live in the Past" (1951)
"Cabin Boy" (1951)
"Catch that Martian" (1952)
"The Analogues" (1952)
"Beachcomber" (1952)
"Ticket to Anywhere" (1952)
"Anachron" (1953)
"Babel II" (1953)
"Four in One" (1953)
"Special Delivery" (1953)
"Natural State" (1954)
"Rule Golden" (1954)
"The Country of the Kind" (1955)
"Dulcie and Decorum" (1955)
"You're Another" (1955)
"This Way to the Regress" (1956)
"Extempore" (1956)
"The Last Word" (1956)
"Stranger Station" (1956)
"Dio" (1957)
"The Dying Man" (1957)
"An Eye for a What?" (1957)
"The Enemy" (1958)
"Be My Guest" (1958)
"Eripmav" (1958)
"Idiot Stick" (1958)
"Thing of Beauty" (1958)
"To Be Continued" (1959)
"The Handler" (1960)
"Time Enough" (1960)
"Auto-Da-Fe" (1961)
A Century of Science Fiction (1962) (editor)
"The Visitor at the Zoo" (1963)
"The Big Pat Boom" (1963)
"An Ancient Madness" (1964)
God's Nose (1964)
Maid to Measure (1964)
"Shall the Dust Praise Thee?" (1967)
"Masks'" (1968)
"The Star Below" (1968)
I See You (1976)
Forever (1981)
O (1983)
Point of View (1985) (illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg)
Strangers on Paradise (1986)
Not a Creature (1993)
Fortyday (1994)
Life Edit (1996)
"Double Meaning"
"In the Beginning"

=Literary criticism and analysis=

In Search of Wonder (1956) (collected reviews and critical pieces)
Creating Short Fiction (1981) (advice on writing short stories)
Turning Points (editor/contributor: critical anthology)
Orbit (editor)
The Futurians (1977, memoir/history)

=Short story collections=

Far Out (1961) (contains "To Serve Man")
In Deep (1963) (contains "The Country of the Kind")
Off Center (1965) (contains "Be My Guest")
Turning On (1966)

Notes

References

{{Reflist |25em |refs=

{{ISFDB name |633}} (ISFDB). Retrieved 2013-04-04.

{{cite web | url = http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/Entry/knight_damon | title=Damon Knight| access-date = 15 October 2011 |publisher=Gollancz/SFE Ltd.}}

{{cite web

|url=http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit72.html#2895

|title=Knight, Damon

|work=The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index to Literary Nominees

|publisher=Locus Publications

|access-date=2013-04-04

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016202109/http://locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit72.html

|archive-date=2012-10-16

}}

{{cite web |url= http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/nebula-weekend/events-program/grandmaster/ |title= Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master |publisher= Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) |access-date= 2013-04-04 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130308182313/http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/nebula-weekend/events-program/grandmaster/ |archive-date= 2013-03-08 }}

{{cite web

|url=http://www.midamericon.org/halloffame/

|title=Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame

|publisher=Mid American Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions, Inc.

|access-date=2013-03-22

|quote=This was the official website of the hall of fame to 2004

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521070009/http://www.midamericon.org/halloffame/

|archive-date=May 21, 2013

}}

Sources

{{cite book |last1= Aldiss |first1= Brian W. |last2= Harrison |first2= Harry |date= 1976 |title= Hell's Cartographers |location= London |publisher= Futura |isbn= 0-86007-907-4 |ref=none }}
{{cite book |last1= Gunn |first1= James E. |last2= Candelaria |first2= Matthew |date= 2005 |title= Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction |location= Lanham, MD |publisher= Scarecrow Press |isbn= 0-8108-4902-X |ref=none }}
{{cite book |last= Pohl |first= Frederik |date= 2002 |title= The SFWA Grand Masters |volume= 3 |location= New York |publisher= Macmillan |isbn= 0-312-86876-6 |ref=none }}
{{cite book |last= Stanyard |first= Stewart T. |date= 2006 |title= Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone: A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series |location= Chicago |publisher= ECW Press |isbn= 978-1-55022-744-4 |ref=none }}

External links

[http://DamonKnightLibrary.com Damon Knight – Official Website]
{{Gutenberg author | id=25414| name=Damon Knight}}
{{Internet Archive author |sname=Damon Francis Knight}}
{{Librivox author |id=957}}
{{sfhof|940|Damon Knight}}
{{ISFDB name|633}}
{{cite web |url= http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/k/knight_d.htm |title= Damon Knight papers |publisher= Syracuse University }}
{{cite web|url=http://www.archive.sfwa.org/news/knight.htm |publisher=SFWA |title=Obituary |date=April 17, 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811182249/http://archive.sfwa.org/news/knight.htm |archive-date=2011-08-11 }}
{{cite web |url= http://www.locusmag.com/2002/News/News04Log.html |work= News Log |title= Obituary |date= April 15, 2002 |publisher= Locus |quote= Complete obituary follows in May issue }}
{{LCAuth|n79108377|Damon Knight|60|}}