Frank Herbert

File:Fantastic 196002.jpg was the cover story for the February 1960 issue of Fantastic.]]

Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. was born on October 8, 1920, in Tacoma, Washington,{{sfn|Touponce|1988|p=4}}{{Cite news|date=February 13, 1986|title=Frank Herbert Is Dead at 65; Author of the 'Dune' Novels|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|agency=Associated Press|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/13/obituaries/frank-herbert-is-dead-at-65-author-of-the-dune-novels.html|access-date=October 24, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} to Franklin Patrick Herbert Sr. and Eileen (née McCarthy) Herbert.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EfqTPwAACAAJ|title= Dune|isbn=978-0881036367|quote=Frank Herbert was born Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. in Tacoma, Washington on October 8, 1920.|access-date=January 21, 2018|last1=Herbert|first1=Frank|date= 1990|publisher= Turtleback|via=Google Books}} His paternal grandparents had come west in 1905 to join Burley Colony in Kitsap County, one of many utopian communes springing up in Washington State beginning in the 1890s.{{Cite web |title=Herbert, Frank Patrick (1920-1986) |url=https://historylink.org/File/21248 |access-date=October 6, 2024 |website=historylink.org}} His upbringing included spending a lot of time on the rural Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas.{{Cite book|last=O'Reilly|first=Timothy|url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107740264|title=Frank Herbert|date=1981|publisher=Frederick Ungar Publishing Company|page=14}} He was fascinated by books, could read much of the newspaper before the age of five, had an excellent memory, and learned quickly.{{Cite book|last=Herbert|first=Brian|url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5306564|title=Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert|date=2003|language=English}} He had an early interest in photography, buying a Kodak box camera at age ten, a new folding camera in his early teens, and a color film camera in the mid-1930s. Due to his parents' drinking, he ran away from home with his little sister, 5-year-old Patricia Lou, in 1938 to live with Frank's favorite maternal aunt, Peggy "Violet" Rowntree, and her husband, Ken Rowntree, Sr.{{Cite book |last=Herbert |first=Brian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z3SF08iQGpEC&pg=PT39 |title=Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert |date=April 19, 2003 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4299-5844-8 |language=en}} Within weeks, Patricia moved back home. But Frank, 18, remained with his aunt and uncle.

He enrolled in high school at Salem High School (now North Salem High School), where he graduated the next year. In 1939, his parents and sister had moved to Los Angeles, California, so Frank followed them. He lied about his age to get his first newspaper job at the Glendale Star.{{cite news |title=Frank Herbert, author of sci-fi best sellers, dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/pittsburgh-post-gazette-13feb1986-pit/4656607/ |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=February 13, 1986 |access-date=July 27, 2009 |archive-date=February 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216172036/https://www.newspapers.com/article/pittsburgh-post-gazette-13feb1986-pit/4656607/ |url-status=live }} Herbert then returned to Salem in 1940 where he worked for the Oregon Statesman newspaper (now Statesman Journal) in a variety of positions, including photographer.

Herbert married Flora Lillian Parkinson in San Pedro, California, in 1941. They had one daughter, Penelope (b. February 16, 1942), and divorced in 1943.Oregon Center For Health Statistics; Portland, Oregon, US; Oregon, Divorce Records, 1925–1945; Document no. 30939 During 1942, after the U.S. entry into World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy's Seabees for six months as a photographer, but suffered a head injury and was given a medical discharge. Herbert subsequently moved to Portland, Oregon where he reported for The Oregon Journal.{{Cite web|url=https://www.historylink.org/File/21248|work=HistoryLink|title=Herbert, Frank Patrick (1920–1986)|last=Beck|first=Katherine|date=June 9, 2021|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210904204522/https://www.historylink.org/File/21248|archive-date=September 4, 2021|url-status=live}}

After the war, Herbert attended the University of Washington, where he met Beverly Ann Stuart at a creative writing class in 1946. They were the only students who had sold any work for publication; Herbert had sold two pulp adventure stories to magazines, the first to Esquire in 1945 titled "Survival of the Cunning", and Stuart had sold a story to Modern Romance magazine. They married in Seattle in 1946, and had two sons, Brian (b. 1947) and Bruce (1951–1993).{{cite web|title=Marin County: Newspaper Obituaries of AIDS Victims (1984–1994)|url=http://www.sfgenealogy.com/marin/aids/aidsobits.htm|access-date=March 26, 2011|work=Marin Independent Journal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024150121/http://www.sfgenealogy.com/marin/aids/aidsobits.htm|archive-date=October 24, 2008|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web |title=Herbert, Frank (1920-1986), science fiction writer |url=https://www.anb.org/display/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1603065 |access-date=April 24, 2024 |website=American National Biography |date=2000 |language=en |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1603065 |last1=Cohen |first1=Geoff }} In 1949 Herbert and his wife moved to California to work on the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. Here they befriended the psychologists Ralph and Irene Slattery. The Slatterys introduced Herbert to the work of several thinkers who would influence his writing, including Freud, Jung, Jaspers and Heidegger; they also familiarized Herbert with Zen Buddhism.Irene Slattery had been a former student of Jung's in Zurich. See Touponce 1988, pp. 9–10.

Herbert never graduated from college. According to his son Brian, he wanted to study only what interested him and so did not complete the required curriculum. He returned to journalism and worked at the Seattle Star and the Oregon Statesman. He was a writer and editor for the San Francisco Examiner{{'s}} California Living magazine for a decade.

In a 1973 interview, Herbert stated that he had been reading science fiction "about ten years" before he began writing in the genre, and he listed his favorite authors as H. G. Wells, Robert A. Heinlein, Poul Anderson and Jack Vance.{{cite magazine |last=Turner |first=Paul |date=October 1973 |title=Vertex Magazine Interview |url=http://members.multimania.co.uk/Fenrir/ctdinterviews.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021031705/http://members.multimania.co.uk/Fenrir/ctdinterviews.htm |archive-date=October 21, 2012 |magazine=Vertex Magazine |volume=1 |issue=4 |access-date=October 21, 2012 |quote=Well, I did read some Heinlein. I shouldn't really tie it down to ten years because I had read H. G. Wells. I'd read Vance, Jack Vance, and I became acquainted with Jack Vance about that time ... I read Poul Anderson. |via="The Prelude to Dune Trilogy" at members.multimania.co.uk/Fenrir/ctdinterviews.htm}}

Herbert's first science fiction story, "Looking for Something", was published in the April 1952 issue of Startling Stories, then a monthly edited by Samuel Mines. Three more of his stories appeared in 1954 issues of Astounding Science Fiction and Amazing Stories. His career as a novelist began in 1955 with the serial publication of Under Pressure in Astounding from November 1955; afterward it was issued as a book by Doubleday titled The Dragon in the Sea. The story explored sanity and madness in the environment of a 21st-century submarine and predicted worldwide conflicts over oil consumption and production.Gina Macdonald, "Herbert, Frank (Patrick)", in Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers by Curtis C. Smith. St. James Press, 1986, {{ISBN|0-912289-27-9}} (pp. 331–334). It was a critical success but not a major commercial one. During this time Herbert also worked as a speechwriter for Republican senator Guy Cordon.{{cite web|last1=Richards|first1=Linda L.|title=The Sons of Dune|url=http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/duneprofile.html|access-date=August 31, 2014|work=January Magazine}}

File:USA Oregon Dunes.jpg near Florence, Oregon, served as an inspiration for the Dune saga.]]

Herbert began researching Dune in 1959.{{Cite web |title=Frank Herbert _ AcademiaLab |url=https://academia-lab.com/encyclopedia/frank-herbert/ |access-date=October 18, 2024 |website=academia-lab.com}} He was able to devote himself wholeheartedly to his writing career because his wife returned to work full-time as an advertising writer for department stores, becoming their breadwinner during the 1960s.{{Cite web |title=Frank Herbert _ AcademiaLab |url=https://academia-lab.com/encyclopedia/frank-herbert/ |access-date=October 18, 2024 |website=academia-lab.com}} The novel Dune was published in 1965, which spearheaded the Dune franchise.{{Cite web |title=Frank Herbert _ AcademiaLab |url=https://academia-lab.com/encyclopedia/frank-herbert/ |access-date=October 18, 2024 |website=academia-lab.com}} He later told Willis E. McNelly that the novel originated when he was assigned to write a magazine article about sand dunes in the Oregon Dunes near Florence, Oregon.{{Cite web |last=Fagan |first=Damian |title=From the Dunes of Arrakis to the Oregon Coast |url=https://www.bendsource.com/outside/from-the-dunes-of-arrakis-to-the-oregon-coast-21079468 |access-date=October 18, 2024 |website=The Source Weekly - Bend |language=en}} He got overinvolved and ended up with far more raw material than needed for an article; while the article was never written, it planted in Herbert the seed that would become Dune.{{Cite web |last=Augustry |first=The |date=October 16, 2021 |title=Frank Herbert 1969 Willis E. McNelly DUNE Tape Interview - Transcript |url=https://theaugustry.com/willis-e-mcnelly-tape-interview-on-dune-and-its-origins-transcript/ |access-date=October 18, 2024 |website=The Augustry |language=en-US}} Another possible source of inspiration for Dune was Herbert's purported experiences with psilocybin, according to mycologist Paul Stamets's account, which describes Herbert's hobby of cultivating chanterelles.{{Cite book|last=Stamets|first=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qtsTH7ekvVYC&q=mycelium+running|title=Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World|date= 2011|publisher=Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale|isbn=978-1-60774-124-4|language=en}} The biography of Frank Herbert, Dreamer of Dune, written by his son Brian Herbert, confirms that the author was passionate about culinary mushrooms but not his use of psilocybin.

Dune took six years of research and writing to complete, and was much longer than other commercial science fiction of the time.{{Cite web |title=SciFi Dune: Dune Genesis by Frank Herbert |url=https://courses.oermn.org/mod/page/view.php?id=13763 |access-date=October 18, 2024 |website=courses.oermn.org}} Herbert's environmental work in Oregon formed the basis of the speculative ecological work of the Fremen, which parallels real-world efforts and tactics of sand dune management.{{Cite web |date=2024-03-02 |title=Dune: The 'terraformed' Oregon dunes that inspired Frank Herbert's sci-fi epic |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240229-dune-part-two-the-oregon-sands-that-inspired-frank-herberts-arrakis |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}} Analog (renamed Astounding, still edited by John W. Campbell) published it in two parts comprising eight installments, "Dune World" from December 1963 and "Prophet of Dune" in 1965. It was then rejected by nearly twenty book publishers.{{Cite news |last=Michaud |first=Jon |date=2013-07-12 |title=“Dune” Endures |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/dune-endures |access-date=2024-12-12 |work=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}} One editor prophetically wrote, "I might be making the mistake of the decade, but..."{{Cite web|date=October 28, 2008|title=BBC – h2g2|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/A42130199|access-date=May 26, 2014|website=Edited guide entry, Frank Patrick Herbert, Jr. – Author|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation}}

Sterling E. Lanier, an editor of Chilton Book Company (known mainly for its auto-repair manuals), had read the Dune serials and offered a $7,500 advance plus future royalties for the rights to publish them as a hardcover book.{{cite web|title=Sandworms of Dune Blog|url=http://www.frankherbert.org/wormsblog/page051.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516124808/http://www.frankherbert.org/wormsblog/page051.html|archive-date=May 16, 2013|access-date=April 27, 2013|publisher=Frankherbert.org}} Herbert rewrote much of his text.{{cite web|last=Liukkonen|first=Petri|title=Frank Herbert|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fherbert.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427010107/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fherbert.htm|archive-date=April 27, 2014|website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi)|publisher=Kuusankoski Public Library|location=Finland}}

Dune was soon a critical success. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965 and shared the Hugo Award in 1966 with ...And Call Me Conrad by Roger Zelazny.

Dune was not an immediate bestseller, although by 1968 Herbert had made $20,000 from it, far more than most science fiction novels of the time.{{Cite web |last=Islam Sumatera Utara |first=Institutional Repository Universitas |date=October 18, 2024 |title=Chapter I,II.pdf |url=https://repository.uisu.ac.id/bitstream/123456789/1928/3/Chapter%20I%2CII.pdf |website=Institutional Repository Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara}} It was not, however, enough to let him take up full-time writing.{{Cite web |date=October 4, 2024 |title=Frank Herbert {{!}} Biography, Books, Dune, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frank-Herbert |access-date=October 18, 2024 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} The publication of Dune did open doors for him; he was the Seattle Post-Intelligencer{{'s}} education writer from 1969 to 1972 and lecturer in general studies and interdisciplinary studies at the University of Washington (1970–1972).{{Cite web |last=Schwartzwalder |first=Sofia |date=15 February 2023 |title=Students of Yesteryear: Frank Herbert |url=https://www.dailyuw.com/archives/students-of-yesteryear/article_bd5a7012-acf6-11ed-b617-5f9d3ae3ec14.html |access-date=1 February 2025 |website=The Daily}} He worked in Vietnam and Pakistan as a social and ecological consultant in 1972, and in 1973 he was director-photographer of the television show The Tillers.Herbert, Brian. Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert. New York: Tor Books, 2003, pp. 257–258, {{ISBN|0-765-30646-8}} "[Frank Herbert completed] a half-hour documentary film based upon fieldwork he had done with Roy Prosterman in Pakistan [and] Vietnam ... Entitled The Tillers, it was written, filmed and directed by Frank Herbert. ... it appeared on King Television in Seattle and on the Public Broadcasting System."

{{blockquote|I don't worry about inspiration or anything like that.... later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, "Well, now it's writing time and now I'll write."

Herbert quoted in Murray, Donald Morison (Editor) Shoptalk: learning to write with writers (1990) Cook Publishers, 1990.|Frank Herbert}}

By the end of 1972, Herbert had retired from newspaper writing and became a full-time fiction writer. During the 1970s and 1980s, he enjoyed considerable commercial success as an author. He divided his time between homes in Hawaii and Washington's Olympic Peninsula; his home in Port Townsend on the peninsula was intended to be an "ecological demonstration project".{{Sfn|Touponce|1988}}{{Page needed|date=October 2021}} During this time he wrote numerous books and pushed ecological and philosophical ideas. He continued his Dune saga with Dune Messiah (1969), Children of Dune (1976), God Emperor of Dune (1981), Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985). Herbert planned to write a seventh novel to conclude the series, but his death in 1986 left storylines unresolved.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/books/review/Itzkoff.t.html|title=Across the Universe: 'Dune' Babies|last=Itzkoff|first=Dave|date=September 24, 2006|website=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024031606/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/books/review/Itzkoff.t.html|archive-date=October 24, 2015|url-status=live|access-date=April 14, 2018}}

Other works by Herbert include The Godmakers (1972), The Dosadi Experiment (1977), The White Plague (1982) and the books he wrote in partnership with Bill Ransom: The Jesus Incident (1979), The Lazarus Effect (1983) and The Ascension Factor (1988), which were sequels to Herbert's 1966 novel Destination: Void. He also helped launch the career of Terry Brooks with a very positive review of Brooks' first novel, The Sword of Shannara, in 1977.{{Citation|author=Shawn Speakman|title=Website History|url=http://www.terrybrooks.net/bio/website-history/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120914143839/http://www.terrybrooks.net/bio/website-history/|publisher=Terrybrooks.net|access-date=June 22, 2011|archive-date=September 14, 2012|url-status=dead}}.

Herbert's change in fortune was shadowed by tragedy. In 1974, his wife Beverly underwent treatment for lung cancer. She lived ten more years, but her health was adversely affected by the treatment.{{cite book|author=Herbert, Frank P.|url=https://archive.org/details/chapterhousedune00herb|title=Chapterhouse: Dune|date=1987|publisher=The Berkley Publishing Group, Ace Books|isbn=0-441-10267-0|location=New York City|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chapterhousedune00herb/page/59 59], 436|quote=It was typical of her that she wanted me to call the radiologist whose treatment in 1974 was the proximate cause of her death and thank him...|url-access=registration|via=Internet Archive}} In October 1978, Herbert was the featured speaker at the Octocon II science fiction convention held at the El Rancho Tropicana in Santa Rosa, California.{{cite web |title=Octocon II |url=https://fancyclopedia.org/Octocon_II |website=Fancyclopedia |access-date=March 9, 2024}} In 1979, he met anthropologist Jim Funaro with whom he conceived the Contact Conference.{{cite web |title=Octocon |url=https://fanlore.org/wiki/Octocon |website=Fanllore |access-date=March 9, 2024}} In June 1981, Herbert was a guest of honour at Advention '81 in Adelaide, South Australia.{{Cite web |date=n.d. |title=Australian National Science Fiction Conventions |url=http://www.natcon.org.au/2007/natconlist.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001010811/http://www.natcon.org.au/2007/natconlist.htm |archive-date=October 1, 2009 |access-date=December 3, 2024 |website=Convergence 2}} Beverly Herbert died on February 7, 1984.Washington State Archives; Olympia, Washington; Washington Death Index, 1940–1959, 1965–2017; Certificate no. 090281. Herbert completed and published Heretics of Dune that year. In his afterword to 1985's Chapterhouse: Dune, Herbert included a dedication to Beverly.

The year 1984 was a tumultuous year in Herbert's life. During this same year of his wife's death, his career took off with the release of David Lynch's film version of Dune. Despite high expectations, a big-budget production design and an A-list cast, the movie drew mostly poor reviews in the United States. However, despite a disappointing response in the US, the film was a critical and commercial success in Europe and Japan.

In 1985, after Beverly's death, Herbert married his former Putnam representative Theresa Shackleford.{{cite web |last1=Lytle |first1=Leslie |title=Dune's Creator: A Glimpse of Genius |url=https://www.sewaneemessenger.com/headlines/?post_id=2100&title=dune%E2%80%99s-creator:-a-glimpse-of-genius |website=Sewanee Mountain Messenger |access-date=March 9, 2024 |date=October 7, 2021}} The same year he published Chapterhouse: Dune, which tied up many of the saga's story threads. This would be Herbert's final single work (the collection Eye was published that year, and Man of Two Worlds was published in 1986). He died of a massive pulmonary embolism while recovering from surgery for pancreatic cancer on February 11, 1986, in Madison, Wisconsin, aged 65.{{sfn|Touponce|1988}}{{Cite web |title=Author of 'Dune' claimed by cancer - UPI Archives |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/02/12/Author-of-Dune-claimed-by-cancer/8008508568400/ |access-date=November 15, 2023 |website=UPI |language=en}}

Herbert was a Republican{{cite news|last=Durrani|first=Haris A.|title=Frank Herbert, the Republican Salafist|url=https://newlinesmag.com/review/dune-frank-herbert-the-republican-salafist/|work=New Line Magazine|date=December 31, 2021}} and an environmentalist.{{cite news|last=Berry|first=Michael|title="Dune," climate fiction pioneer: The ecological lessons of Frank Herbert's sci-fi masterpiece were ahead of its time|url= https://www.salon.com/2015/08/13/dune_climate_fiction_pioneer_the_ecological_lessons_of_frank_herberts_sci_fi_masterpiece_were_ahead_of_its_time/|work=Salon|date=August 13, 2015}} His political views have been variously described as conservative, reactionist,{{cite news|last=Dite|first=Chris|title=What Draws Us to the Reactionary Darkness of Dune?|url=https://jacobin.com/2021/08/dune-herbert-science-fiction-conservatism|work=Jacobin|date=August 27, 2021}} and libertarian.{{cite news|last=Kunzru|first=Hari|title=Dune, 50 years on: how a science fiction novel changed the world|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/03/dune-50-years-on-science-fiction-novel-world|work=The Guardian|date=July 3, 2015}} Herbert was politically active within the Republican Party, and worked as a speechwriter for several politicians, including Senator Guy Cordon. Herbert also volunteered on the campaign of Republican William Bantz in the 1958 Washington Senate election, who unsuccessfully challenged the incumbent Democrat Henry M. Jackson.{{cite web|last=Beck|first=Katherine|title=Herbert, Frank Patrick (1920-1986)|url=https://www.historylink.org/File/21248|work=HistoryLink|date=June 9, 2021}}

Herbert was a critic of the Soviet Union. He was a distant relative of the Republican senator Joseph McCarthy, whom he referred to as "Cousin Joe". However, he was appalled to learn of McCarthy's blacklisting of suspected communists from working in certain careers and believed that he was endangering essential freedoms of citizens of the United States.{{cite book|last1=Herbert|first1=Brian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hmg0YFP52XcC&q=frank+herbert+like+mccarthy&pg=PA91|title=Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert|date=2003|publisher=MacMillan|isbn=978-0765306463|page=91|access-date=February 13, 2015}} Herbert also opposed American involvement in the war in Vietnam."This was Frank Herbert, speaking from his own heart... It was a philosophy of non-violence that would ultimately lead to his involvement in the movement to stop the war in Vietnam." Herbert, Brian. (2003). Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert. MacMillan. Retrieved February 13, 2015 (p. 157). He was also critical of welfare, arguing that it increased dependence on the state.

Herbert believed that governments lie to protect themselves and that, following the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon had unwittingly taught an important lesson in not trusting government.{{cite book|last1=Herbert|first1=Brian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z3SF08iQGpEC&q=frank+herbert+richard+nixon+provided+proof&pg=PT164|title=Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert|date=2003|publisher=MacMillan|isbn=978-1429958448|access-date=February 13, 2015}}{{cite web|url=https://vasil.ludost.net/dunegenesis.pdf|title=Dune Genesis by Frank Herbert|website=Vasil.ludost.net|access-date=March 1, 2022}} He considered Nixon a better president than John F. Kennedy, calling the latter "one of the most dangerous presidents this country ever had."{{cite news|last=Stone|first=Pat|title=Frank Herbert: Science Fiction Author|url=https://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-living/nature-and-environment/frank-herbert-science-fiction-author-zmaz81mjzraw/|work=MotherEarthNews|date=May 1, 1981}} He praised President Ronald Reagan, for his pro-family and pro-individualist stances, while opposing his foreign policy.

In Chapterhouse: Dune, he wrote:

{{blockquote|All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted. | Frank Herbert | Chapterhouse: Dune{{rp|59}}}}Frank Herbert believed civil service to be "one of the most serious errors we made as a democracy" and that bureaucracy negatively impacts the lives of people in all forms of government. He stated that "every such bureaucracy eventually becomes an aristocracy" and uses preferential treatment and nepotism in favor of bureaucrats as his main arguments.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IfgBX1EW00 |title=Frank Herbert speaking at UCLA 4/17/1985 |language=en |access-date=April 24, 2024 |via=www.youtube.com}}

Frank Herbert used his science fiction novels to explore complex"With its blend (or sometimes clash) of complex intellectual discourse and Byzantine intrigue, Dune provided a template for FH's more significant later works. Sequels soon began to appear which carried on the arguments of the original in testingly various manners and with an intensity of discourse seldom encountered in the sf field. Dune Messiah (1969) elaborates the intrigue at the cost of other elements, but Children of Dune (1976) recaptures much of the strength of the original work and addresses another recurrent theme in FH's work – the evolution of Man, in this case into SUPERMAN;..." "Frank Herbert", The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. ideas involving philosophy, religion, psychology, politics and ecology. The underlying thrust of his work was a fascination with the question of human survival and evolution. Herbert has attracted a dedicated fan base, many of whom have attempted to read everything he wrote (fiction or non-fiction); indeed, such was the devotion of some of his readers that Herbert was at times asked if he was founding a cult,{{cite web|last=Herbert|first=Frank|date=July 1980|title=Dune Genesis|url=http://www.frankherbert.org/news/genesis.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107220342/http://www.frankherbert.org/news/genesis.html|archive-date=January 7, 2012|access-date=February 14, 2014|work=Omni|publisher=FrankHerbert.org}} a proposition which he very much rejected.

There are a number of key themes found in Herbert's work:

• A concern with leadership: Herbert explored the human tendency to slavishly submit to charismatic leaders. He delved into both the flaws and potentials of bureaucracy and government.
• Herbert was among the first science fiction authors to popularize ideas about ecologyMcNeilly, Willis E.

"Herbert, Frank (Patrick)" in Gunn, James. The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

London, Viking, 1988. (pp. 222–24) {{ISBN|0-670-81041-X}} . "Herbert felt strongly about many

causes, particularly ecology ..." and systems thinking. He stressed the need for humans to think both holistically and with regards to the long-term."When I was quite young ... I began to suspect there must be flaws in my sense of reality ... But I had been produced to focus on objects (things) and not on systems (processes)." Frank Herbert, "Doll Factory, Gun Factory", (1973 Essay), reprinted in The Maker of Dune: Thoughts of a Science Fiction Master edited by Tim O'Reilly. Berkley Books, 1987, {{ISBN|0425097854}}.

• The relationship between religion, politics and power."Frank Herbert's true stroke of

genius consisted ... in inviting a way of thinking about humanity, history, religion, and politics as complex and interdependent as ecosystems themselves". Jeffery Nicholas, Dune and Philosophy: Weirding Way of Mentat. Open Court Publishing, 2011, {{ISBN|0812697154}}, (p. 149).

• Human survival and adaptation: Herbert writes of the Fremen, the Sardaukar, and the Dosadi, who are molded by their terrible living conditions into dangerous super races.{{Cite web|date=July 3, 2015|title=Dune, 50 years on: how a science fiction novel changed the world|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/03/dune-50-years-on-science-fiction-novel-world|access-date=October 27, 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en}}
• Human possibilities and potential: Herbert offered Mentats, the Bene Gesserit and the Bene Tleilax as different visions of human potential.
• The nature of sanity and madness. Frank Herbert was interested in the work of Thomas Szasz and the anti-psychiatry movement. Often, Herbert poses the question, "What is sane?", and while there are clearly examples of insane behavior and psychopathy to be found in his works (as evinced by characters such as Piter De Vries), it is often suggested that normal and abnormal are relative terms which humans are sometimes ill-equipped to apply to one another, especially on the basis of statistical regularity.
• The possible effects and consequences of consciousness-altering chemicals, such as the spice in the Dune saga, as well as the 'Jaspers' fungus in The Santaroga Barrier, and the Kelp in the Destination: Void sequence.
• How language shapes thought. More specifically, Herbert was influenced by Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics.O'Reilly, Tim. Frank Herbert. New York, NY: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., Inc. ,1981. (pp.59–60) {{ISBN|0-8044-2666-X}} . "Much of the Bene Gesserit technology of consciousness is based on the insights of general semantics, a philosophy and training method developed in the 1930s by Alfred Korzybski. Herbert had studied general semantics in San Francisco at about the time he was writing Dune. (At one point, he worked as a ghostwriter for a nationally syndicated column by S. I. Hayakawa, one of the foremost proponents of general semantics.)" Algis Budrys wrote that Herbert's knowledge of language and linguistics was 'worth at least one PhD and the Chair of Philology at a good New England college'.{{Cite magazine|last=Budrys|first=Algis|date=April 1966|title=Galaxy Bookshelf|url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v24n04_1966-04#page/n33/mode/1up|magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction|pages=67–75}}
• Learning, teaching, and thinking.

Frank Herbert refrained from offering his readers formulaic answers to many of the questions he explored.

File:Dune.peninsula.tacoma.wa.jpg in Tacoma, Washington, with the volcano Mount Rainier in the distance]]

Dune and the Dune saga constitute one of the world's best-selling science fiction series and novels; Dune in particular has received widespread critical acclaim, winning the Nebula Award in 1965 and sharing the Hugo Award in 1966, and is frequently considered one of the best science fiction novels ever, if not the best.{{sfn|Touponce|1988|p=2|ps= "His dominant intellectual impulse was not to mystify or set himself up as a prophet, but the opposite – to turn what powers of analysis he had (and they were considerable) over to his audience. And this impulse is as manifest in Dune, which many people consider the all-time best science fiction novel, as it is in his computer book, Without Me You're Nothing."}} Locus subscribers voted it the all-time best SF novel in 1975, again in 1987, and the best "before 1990" in 1998.

Dune is considered a landmark novel for a number of reasons:

• Dune is a landmark of soft science fiction. Herbert deliberately suppressed technology in his Dune universe so that he could address the future of humanity, rather than the future of humanity's technology. Dune considers the way humans and their institutions might change over time.Building Sci-fi Moviescapes: The Science Behind the Fiction by Matt Hanson.{{cite web|title=Frank Herbert Biography Author Page|url=http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/authors/frank-herbert.html|work=bestsciencefictionbooks.com}}
• Frank Herbert was a great popularizer of scientific ideas. In Dune, he helped popularize the term ecology. Gerald Jonas explains in The New York Times Book Review: "So completely did Mr. Herbert work out the interactions of man and beast and geography and climate that Dune became the standard for an emerging subgenre of 'ecological' science fiction."
• Dune is considered an example of literary world-building. The Library Journal reports that "Dune is to science fiction what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy". Arthur C. Clarke is quoted as making a similar statement on the back cover of a paper edition of Dune.{{cite book|last1=Herbert|first1=Frank|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0425080021|title=Dune|date=January 1977|publisher=Berkley Publishing Corp|isbn=0425-04376-2|edition=Berkley Medallion|location=US|page=Back Cover|ref=berk|url-access=registration}} Frank Herbert imagined every facet of his creation. He included glossaries, quotes, documents, and histories, to bring his universe alive to his readers. No science fiction novel before it had so vividly realized life on another world.

Herbert never again equalled the critical acclaim he received for Dune. Neither his sequels to Dune nor any of his other books won a Hugo or Nebula Award, although almost all of them were New York Times Best Sellers.Speaking at the 2006 induction of Herbert in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Kevin J. Anderson stated that Children of Dune (1976) "was the first SF novel ever to hit the New York Times bestseller list." [http://www.frankherbert.org/dune7blog/page81.html Dune 7 Blog: Wednesday, June 21, 2006: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721074407/http://www.frankherbert.org/dune7blog/page81.html|date=July 21, 2011}}. By KJA. Dune: The Official Website. Retrieved July 17, 2011. KJA spoke and presented the award to son Brian Herbert.

Malcolm Edwards wrote, in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:Malcolm Edwards, "Herbert, Frank" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls. London, Orbit, 1994. {{ISBN|1-85723-124-4}} (p. 558–560).

{{Blockquote|text=Much of Herbert's work makes difficult reading. His ideas were genuinely developed concepts, not merely decorative notions, but they were sometimes embodied in excessively complicated plots and articulated in prose which did not always match the level of thinking [...] His best novels, however, were the work of a speculative intellect with few rivals in modern science fiction.}}

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Herbert in 2006.

California State University, Fullerton's Pollack Library has several of Herbert's draft manuscripts of Dune and other works, with the author's notes, in their Frank Herbert Archives.{{cite web|date=February 27, 2014|title=Remembering Science Fiction Author Frank Herbert: Highlighting His Archives In the Pollak Library|url=http://libraryblogs.fullerton.edu/2014/02/27/remembering-science-fiction-author-frank-herbert-highlighting-his-archives-in-the-pollak-library/|access-date=October 28, 2014|publisher=California State University, Fullerton}}

Metro Parks Tacoma built Dune Peninsula and the Frank Herbert Trail at Point Defiance Park in July 2019 to honor the hometown writer.{{cite web|last=Krell|first=Alexis|date=July 6, 2019|title=The Dune Peninsula and Frank Herbert Trail — 'Tacoma's newest treasure' — are open|url=https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article232329717.html|access-date=July 7, 2019|work=The Tacoma News-Tribune}}

{{main|Frank Herbert bibliography}}

Beginning in 2012, Herbert's estate and WordFire Press have released four previously unpublished novels in e-book and paperback formats: High-Opp (2012),{{cite web|last=Anderson|first=Kevin J.|date=March 16, 2012|title=New, never-published Frank Herbert novel now available: HIGH-OPP|url=http://kjablog.com/new-never-published-frank-herbert-novel-now-available-high-opp/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113235948/http://kjablog.com/new-never-published-frank-herbert-novel-now-available-high-opp/|archive-date=January 13, 2015|access-date=January 14, 2015|publisher=KJAblog.com}} Angels' Fall (2013),{{cite web|last=Anderson|first=Kevin J.|date=May 22, 2013|title=New, Previously Unpublished Frank Herbert Novel, ANGELS' FALL|url=http://kjablog.com/new-previously-unpublished-frank-herbert-novel-angels-fall/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140916190202/http://kjablog.com/new-previously-unpublished-frank-herbert-novel-angels-fall/|archive-date=September 16, 2014|access-date=January 14, 2015|publisher=KJAblog.com}} A Game of Authors (2013),{{cite web|last=Anderson|first=Kevin J.|date=July 9, 2013|title=A GAME OF AUTHORS – another lost Frank Herbert novel|url=http://kjablog.com/a-game-of-authors-another-lost-frank-herbert-novel/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140916190628/http://kjablog.com/a-game-of-authors-another-lost-frank-herbert-novel/|archive-date=September 16, 2014|access-date=January 14, 2015|publisher=KJAblog.com}} and A Thorn in the Bush (2014).{{cite web|last=Anderson|first=Kevin J.|date=November 22, 2014|title=Off the Radar|url=http://kjablog.com/off-the-radar/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141208095457/http://kjablog.com/off-the-radar/|archive-date=December 8, 2014|access-date=January 15, 2015|publisher=KJAblog.com}}

In recent years, Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have added to the Dune franchise, using notes left behind by Frank Herbert and discovered over a decade after his death. Brian Herbert and Anderson have written three prequel trilogies (Prelude to Dune, Legends of Dune and Great Schools of Dune) exploring the history of the Dune universe before the events of the original novel, two novels that take place between novels of the original Dune sequels (with plans for more), as well as two post-Chapterhouse Dune novels that complete the original series (Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune) based on Frank Herbert's own Dune 7 outline.{{Herbert notes}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{ISFDB name |30}} (ISFDB). Retrieved April 24, 2013.

[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2036 "Bibliography: Dune"]. ISFDB. Retrieved April 24, 2013.

[http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit60.html#2368 "Herbert, Frank"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016200438/http://locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit60.html |date=October 16, 2012 }}. The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Literary Nominees. Locus Publications. Retrieved April 18, 2013.

{{cite web |url=http://www.sfhomeworld.org/make_contact/article.asp?articleID=239 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20060426115756/http://www.sfhomeworld.org/make_contact/article.asp?articleID=239 |archive-date=April 26, 2006 |title=Presenting the 2006 Hall of Fame Inductees |url-status=dead |access-date=August 19, 2016}}. Press release March 15, 2006. Science Fiction Museum (sfhomeworld.org). Archived April 26, 2006. Retrieved April 24, 2013.

[http://cohenside.blogspot.com/2006/05/science-fiction-hall-of-fame.html "Science Fiction Hall of Fame"]. The Cohenside. May 15, 2006. Retrieved March 21, 2013.

}}

• {{Cite book|last=Touponce|first=William F.|url=https://archive.org/details/frankherbert0000toup|url-access=registration|title=Frank Herbert|year=1988|publisher=Twayne Publishers|isbn=0-8057-7514-5|oclc=16717899}}

• Allen, L. David. Cliffs Notes on Herbert's Dune & Other Works. Lincoln, NE: Cliffs Notes, 1975. {{ISBN|0-8220-1231-6}}
• Clarke, Jason. SparkNotes: Dune, Frank Herbert. New York: Spark Publishing, 2002. {{ISBN|1-58663-510-7}}
• {{cite book|editor-first=Kevin R.|editor-last=Grazier|editor-link=Kevin Grazier |title=The Science of Dune: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind Frank Herbert's Fictional Universe |series=Psychology of Popular Culture |year=2008 |location=Dallas, TX |publisher=BenBella Books |isbn=978-1-933771-28-1}}
• Herbert, Brian. Dreamer of Dune : The Biography of Frank Herbert. New York: Tor Books, 2003. {{ISBN|0-765-30646-8}}
• Levack, Daniel JH; Willard, Mark. Dune Master: A Frank Herbert Bibliography. Westport, CT: Meckler, 1988. {{ISBN|0-88736-099-8}}
• McNelly, Dr. Willis E. (ed.) The Dune Encyclopedia. New York: Berkeley Publishing Group, 1984. {{ISBN|0-425-06813-7}}
• Miller, David M. Starmont Reader's Guide 5: Frank Herbert. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont, 1980. {{ISBN|0-916732-16-9}}
• O'Reilly, Timothy. Frank Herbert. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980.
• O'Reilly, Timothy (ed.) The Maker of Dune. New York: Berkeley Publishing Group, 1987.

{{Commons category|Frank Herbert}}

{{wikiquote}}

• [http://www.dunenovels.com Official website for Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721074407/http://www.frankherbert.org/dune7blog/page81.html Frank Herbert SF Hall of Fame induction] (Kevin Anderson report with his speech)
• {{sfhof|939}}
• {{cite web|url=http://members.lycos.co.uk/Fenrir/ctdinterviews.htm|title=Vertex Interviews Frank Herbert|author=Paul Turner|date=October 1973|publisher=Volume 1, Issue 4|access-date=April 16, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519171219/http://members.lycos.co.uk/Fenrir/ctdinterviews.htm|archive-date=May 19, 2009|url-status=dead}}
• 1984 interview with L. A. Reader: [http://futurespast-editions.blogspot.com/2013/10/lost-interview-futuristic-meditations.html part 1], [http://futurespast-editions.blogspot.com/2013/11/lost-interview-futuristic-meditations.html 2], [http://futurespast-editions.blogspot.com/2013/11/lost-interview-futuristic-meditations_25.html 3]
• [https://www.literature-map.com/frank+herbert Frank Herbert on the Literature Map]

• [http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/herbert_frank Frank Herbert] biography at the [http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/ Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]
• [http://baheyeldin.com/literature/arabic-and-islamic-themes-in-frank-herberts-dune.html Arabic and Islamic themes in Frank Herbert's Dune novels]
• [https://www.oreilly.com/tim/herbert/index.csp Study] by Tim O'Reilly of Frank Herbert's work up to the Jesus Incident; one of the more in-depth studies of Frank Herbert's thoughts and ideas
• [http://www.moongadget.com/origins/dune.html Article on the inspirations for Dune]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20141201210538/http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/06/frank-herbert-the-dune-man/ "Frank Herbert, the Dune Man"] – (Frederik Pohl)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20141201210558/http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/06/frank-herbert-the-dune-man-part-2/ "Frank Herbert, the Dune Man, Part 2"]

• {{Gutenberg author | id=25754 | name=Frank Herbert}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frank Herbert |sopt=t}}
• {{Librivox author |id=50}}
• {{ISFDB name|30}}
• {{IBList |type=author|id=51|name=Frank Herbert}}
• {{Ibdof name|id=50|name=Frank Herbert}}
• {{OL author}}

{{Frank Herbert}}

{{Dune franchise}}

{{Hugo Award Best Novel}}

{{Nebula Award Best Novel}}

{{Portal bar |Science fiction|United States|Conservatism|Environment}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herbert, Frank}}

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:American environmentalists

Category:American male novelists

Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II

Category:American science fiction writers

Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Wisconsin

Category:Deaths from pulmonary embolism

Category:Hugo Award–winning writers

Category:Journalists from Oregon

Category:Constructed language creators

Category:Nebula Award winners

Category:North Salem High School (Salem, Oregon) alumni

Category:Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees

Category:University of Washington alumni

Category:Writers from Port Townsend, Washington

Category:Writers from Salem, Oregon

Category:Writers from Seattle

Category:Writers from Tacoma, Washington

Category:1920 births

Category:1986 deaths

Category:Conservatism in the United States

Category:Caedmon Records artists

Category:Right-wing politics in the United States

Category:Anti-crime activists

Category:Critics of Marxism

Category:California Republicans

Category:Oregon Republicans

Category:San Francisco Examiner people

Category:American male short story writers

Category:20th-century American short story writers

Category:Activists from California

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:Novelists from Washington (state)

Category:Novelists from Oregon

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:Seattle Post-Intelligencer people

Category:Seabees

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:American male journalists

Category:American war photographers

Category:American speechwriters

Category:American people of German descent

Category:American people of Irish descent

Category:American people of English descent