Jerry Pournelle#Bibliography

Pournelle was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the seat of Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana, and later lived with his family in Capleville, Tennessee, an unincorporated area near Memphis.{{cite web|url=http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2view/view262.html|title=View 262 June|website=www.jerrypournelle.com}} Percival Pournelle, his father, was a radio advertising executive and general manager of several radio stations. Ruth Pournelle, his mother, was a teacher, although during World War II, she worked in a munitions factory.

He attended first grade at St. Anne's Elementary School, in Memphis, which had two grades to a classroom. Beginning with third grade, he attended Coleville Consolidated Elementary School, in Colevile, which had about 25 pupils per grade and four rooms and four teachers for 8 grades{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7j3IG4h42Y|title=Triangulation 90: Jerry Pournelle|date=February 6, 2013 |access-date=September 1, 2019|via=www.youtube.com}}{{cite web|url=https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/independence-consent-of-the-governed-and-the-new-class/|title=Independence, Consent of the Governed, and The New Class – Chaos Manor – Jerry Pournelle|website=www.jerrypournelle.com|access-date=September 1, 2019}} Pournelle attended high school at Christian Brothers College in Memphis, run by the De La Salle Christian Brothers; despite its name, it was a high school at the time.{{cite web|url=https://www.baen.com/Chapters/0312861834/0312861834.htm|title=Starswarm by Jerry Pournelle - Baen Books|website=www.baen.com|access-date=September 1, 2019}}

He served in the United States Army during the Korean War. In 1953–54, after his military service, Pournelle attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City.{{cite web|url=https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/what-do-we-do-now-view-688-20110812/|title=What Do We Do Now? View 687 20110812 – Chaos Manor – Jerry Pournelle|website=www.jerrypournelle.com|access-date=September 1, 2019}} Subsequently, he studied at the University of Washington, where he received a B.S. in psychology on June 11, 1955; an M.S. in psychology (experimental statistics) on March 21, 1958; and a Ph.D. in political science in March 1964.{{cite web|title=Transcript|website=studentclearinghouse.org|publisher=University of Washington Registrar's Office|url=http://sdb.admin.washington.edu/sisDegreeValidation/Public/default.aspx}}

His master's thesis is titled "Behavioural observations of the effects of personality needs and leadership in small discussion groups", and is dated 1957.[http://uwashington.worldcat.org/title/behavioural-observations-of-the-effects-of-personality-needs-and-leadership-in-small-discussion-groups/oclc/19881053&referer=brief_results "Behavioural observations of the effects of personality needs and leadership in small discussion groups"] listing, University of Washington Libraries Pournelle's Ph.D. dissertation is titled "The American political continuum; an examination of the validity of the left-right model as an instrument for studying contemporary American political 'isms'".[http://uwashington.worldcat.org/title/american-political-continuum-an-examination-of-the-validity-of-the-left-right-model-as-an-instrument-for-studying-contemporary-american-political-isms/oclc/19908362 The American political continuum; an examination of the validity of the left-right model as an instrument for studying contemporary American political "isms."] listing, University of Washington LibrariesPournelle, Jerry. "The American Political Continuum: An Examination of the Validity of the Left-right Model as an Instrument for Studying Contemporary American Political" isms."." PhD diss., University of Washington, 1964. Harvard

Pournelle married Roberta Jane Isdell in 1959; the couple had five children.{{cite web|url=https://locusmag.com/2017/09/jerry-pournellle-1933-2017/|title=Jerry Pournelle (1933–2017)|date=September 9, 2017|access-date=September 1, 2019}} His wife, and son, naval officer Phillip, and daughter, archaeologist Jennifer, have also written science fiction in collaboration with their father.{{cite web |url= http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?23297 |title= Roberta Jane Pournelle |publisher= iSFdb }}{{cite web |url= http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?164819 |title= Phillip Pournelle |publisher= iSFdb }}{{cite web |url= http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?155595 |title= J. R. Pournelle |publisher= iSFdb }}

In 2008, Pournelle battled a brain tumor, which appeared to respond favorably to radiation treatment.{{cite web|url=http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/view502.html|title=View 502 January 21 - 27, 2008|website=www.jerrypournelle.com}} An August 28, 2008 report on his weblog claimed he was now cancer-free. Pournelle suffered a stroke on December 16, 2014, for which he was hospitalized for a time. By June 2015, he was writing again, though impairment from the stroke had slowed his typing.According to his son, Alex Pournelle, [http://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/dr-pournelle-health-report/ The View from Chaos Manor], Dr. Pournelle's blog.{{cite web |url=http://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/ |title=Chaos Manor blog |last1=Pournelle |first1=Jerry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150615043416/http://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/ | archive-date=2015-06-15 }} Pournelle died in his sleep of heart failure at his home in Studio City, California, on September 8, 2017.{{cite web|last1=Pournelle|first1=Alex|url= https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/passings/ | title = Passings…. |work= Chaos Manor | date = 2017-09-08 | access-date = 2017-09-08}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sfwa.org/2017/09/memoriam-jerry-pournelle/ |title= In Memoriam: Jerry Pournelle |work = Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America | date=September 8, 2017| access-date= September 18, 2017}}{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/obituaries/jerry-pournelle-science-fiction-novelist-and-computer-guide-dies-at-84.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/obituaries/jerry-pournelle-science-fiction-novelist-and-computer-guide-dies-at-84.html |archive-date=2022-01-03 |url-status=live |title= Jerry Pournelle, Science Fiction Novelist and Computer Guide, Dies at 84 |author= Neil Genzlinger |work= The New York Times |date= September 15, 2017 |access-date= September 18, 2017|url-access=limited}}{{cbignore}}

Pournelle was raised a Unitarian. He converted to Roman Catholicism while attending Christian Brothers College.

Pournelle was introduced to Malthusian principles upon reading the book Road to Survival{{cite web|url=https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/2012/03/05/|title=Mar 5, 2012 – Chaos Manor – Jerry Pournelle|website=www.jerrypournelle.com|access-date=September 1, 2019}} by the ecologist (and ornithologist) William Vogt, who depicted an Earth denuded of species other than humans, all of them headed for squalor. Concerned about the Malthusian dangers of human overpopulation, and considering the Catholic Church's position on contraception to be untenable, he left the Catholic Church while an undergraduate at the University of Iowa. Pournelle eventually returned to religion, and for a number of years was a high church Anglican, in part because Anglican theology was virtually identical to Catholic theology, with the exception that the Anglicans accepted as moral the use of birth control.

Pournelle eventually returned to the Catholic Church, as his other beliefs were consistent with the Catholic communion, although he did not agree with the Church's position on birth control. Despite his estrangement from the Catholic Church, he opposed having the government require that Catholic institutions provide access to birth control or abortion. He wrote that Sunday attendance at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, was part of his family's routine. Upon his death, his family arranged a memorial mass at the church, on 16 September 2017.{{cite web|url=http://www.heinleinsociety.org/2017/09/jerry-pournelle-1933-2017/|title=Jerry Pournelle (1933–2017) | The Heinlein Society|website=www.heinleinsociety.org|access-date=September 1, 2019|archive-date=February 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214183600/https://www.heinleinsociety.org/2017/09/jerry-pournelle-1933-2017/|url-status=dead}}

Pournelle was an intellectual protégé of Russell Kirk and Stefan T. Possony.{{cite web|url=https://bradbirzer.com/2017/09/10/jerry-pournelle-on-russell-kirk/|title=Jerry Pournelle on Russell Kirk|date=September 10, 2017|access-date=September 1, 2019}} Pournelle wrote numerous publications with Possony, including The Strategy of Technology (1970). The Strategy has been used as a textbook at the United States Military Academy (West Point), the United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs), the Air War College, and the National War College."The First Essential of Airpower: The Case for Air Force Laboratories", Air & Space Power Journal, Major Daniel E. Bullock, September 29, 1999.

He told fellow author Robert Heinlein, Pournelle recalled, "that once I got into advance plans at Boeing I probably wrote more science fiction than he did, and I didn't have to put characters in mine".{{r|NYTobit}} In the late 1950s, while conducting operations research at the company, he envisioned a weapon consisting of massive tungsten rods dropped from high above the Earth. These super-dense, super-fast kinetic energy projectiles delivered enormous destructive force to the target without contaminating the environs with radioactive isotopes, as would occur with a nuclear bomb. Pournelle named his superweapon “Project Thor”. Others called it "Rods from God".{{cite news|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/magazine/10section3a.t-9.html|title=Rods From God|author=Jonathan Shainin|date=10 December 2006|url-access=limited}} Pournelle headed the Human Factors Laboratory at Boeing, where his group did pioneering work on astronaut heat tolerance in extreme environments. His group also did experimental work that resulted in certification of the passenger oxygen system for the Boeing 707 airplane. He later worked as a Systems Analyst in a design and analysis group at the company, where he did strategic analysis of proposed new weapons systems.

In 1964, Pournelle joined the Aerospace Corporation in San Bernardino, California where he was Editor of Project 75, a major study of all ballistic missile technology for the purpose of making recommendations to the US Air Force on investment in technologies required to build the missile force to be deployed in 1975.{{cite book | last = Seed | first = David | title = Future wars : the anticipations and the fears | chapter=The Strategic Defense Initiative:A Utopian Fantasy | pages=181–200 | publisher = Liverpool University Press | location = Liverpool | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-1846317552 }} After Project 75 was completed Pournelle became manager of several advanced concept studies.

At North American Rockwell’s Space Division, Pournelle was associate director of operations research, where he took part in the Apollo program and general operations.{{cite web|url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/x-33/nasm.htm|title=NASM Talk|website=www.hq.nasa.gov|access-date=September 1, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://space.nss.org/the-spaceship-that-came-in-from-the-cold-war-the-untold-story-of-the-dc-x/|title=The Spaceship that Came in From the Cold War: The Untold Story of the DC-X|National Space Society|date=August 3, 2017|access-date=September 1, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/about/|title=About – Chaos Manor – Jerry Pournelle|website=www.jerrypournelle.com|access-date=September 1, 2019}}[http://www.drdobbs.com/windows/184406294 "Deep Impact"], JERRY POURNELLE, Dr. Dobb's Journal, October 1, 2005. Pournelle goes into some detail; the study was classified.

He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. In 1989, Pournelle, Max Hunter, and retired Army Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham made a presentation to then Vice President Dan Quayle promoting development of the DC-X rocket."Test of Tail-First Landing: Science Fiction Gives Rocket a Boost", CHARLES PETIT, San Francisco Chronicle, June 17, 1993.

Pournelle was among those who in 1968 signed a pro-Vietnam War advertisement in Galaxy Science Fiction.{{Cite magazine |date=June 1968 |title=Paid Advertisement |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction |pages=4–11}} During the 1970s and 1980s, he also published articles on military tactics and war gaming in the military simulations industry in Avalon Hill's magazine The General. That led him into correspondences with some of the early figures in Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy role-playing games.The General, Vol. 7, No. 6.

Two of his collaborations with Larry Niven reached the top rankings in the New York Times Best Seller List. In 1977, Lucifer's Hammer reached number two.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}} Footfall — wherein Heinlein was a thinly veiled minor character — reached the number one spot in 1986.{{r|NYTobit}}

Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.The SFWA Grand Masters, Vol. One edited by Frederik Pohl, 1999, NY, NY, pg. 12

In 1994, Pournelle's friendly relationship with Newt Gingrich led to Gingrich securing a government job for Pournelle's son, Richard."Hot Topics", JON BREAM, Star Tribune (Minneapolis–Saint Paul), May 2, 1995. At the time, Pournelle and Gingrich were reported to be collaborating on "a science fiction political thriller." Pournelle's relationship with Gingrich was long established even then, as Pournelle had written the preface to Gingrich's book, Window of Opportunity (1985)."The Truth Is Out There", ALEXANDER STARR, The New York Times, August 9, 1998.

Years after Byte shuttered, Pournelle wrote his Chaos Manor column online. He reprised it at Byte.com, which he helped launch with journalist Gina Smith, John C. Dvorak, and others. However, after a shakeup, he announced that rather than stay at United Business Media, he would follow Smith, Dvorak, and 14 other news journalists to start an independent tech and politics site called anewdomain.net. As an active director of that site and others it launched, Pournelle wrote, edited, and worked with young writers and journalists on the craft of writing about science and tech.

Beginning during his tenure at Boeing Company, Pournelle submitted science fiction short stories to John W. Campbell, the editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later called Analog Science Fiction and Fact), but Campbell did not accept any of Pournelle's submissions until shortly before Campbell's death in 1971, when he accepted for publication Pournelle's novelette "Peace with Honor."Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, May 1971 pp 137-58{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/jerry-pournelle-and-personal-computer/|title= Jerry Pournelle and the Personal Computer|website=Kirkus Reviews|access-date=September 1, 2019}} From the beginning, Pournelle's work has engaged strong military themes. Several books are centered on a fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.

Pournelle was one of the few close friends of H. Beam Piper and was granted by Piper the rights to produce stories set in Piper's Terro-Human Future History. This right has been recognized by the Piper estate.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} Pournelle worked for some years on a sequel to Space Viking but abandoned this in the early 1990s, however John F. Carr and Mike Robertson completed this sequel, entitled The Last Space Viking, and it was published in 2011.{{cite web|url=https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/john-f-carr/last-space-viking.htm|title=The Last Space Viking (Terro-Human Future History) by John F Carr and Mike Robertson|website= Fantastic fiction |access-date=September 1, 2019}}

In 2013, Variety reported that motion picture rights to Pournelle's novel Janissaries had been acquired by the newly formed Goddard Film Group, headed by Gary Goddard.[https://variety.com/2013/film/news/goddard-forms-film-production-unit-819703/ "Goddard Forms Film Production Unit"]. The IMDb website reported that the film was in development, and that husband-and-wife writing team, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, had written the screenplay.{{cite web|url=https://pro.imdb.com/title/tt3113724/|publisher=IMDb pro |title= Janissaries}}

Pournelle began fiction writing non-SF work under a pseudonym in 1965. His early SF was published under the name "Wade Curtis", in Analog and other magazines. Some works were also published under the name "J.E. Pournelle".

In the mid-1970s, Pournelle began a fruitful collaboration with Larry Niven; he has also collaborated on novels with Roland J. Green, Michael F. Flynn, and Steven Barnes, and collaborated as an editor on an anthology series The Endless Frontier with John F. Carr.

In 2010, his daughter Jennifer R. Pournelle (writing as J.R. Pournelle), an archaeology professor, e-published a novel Outies, an authorized sequel to the Mote in God's Eye series.The View From Chaos Manor, [http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/2011/Q1/view668.html View 668 March 28 - April 3, 2011], Jerry Pournelle.Amazon.com, [https://www.amazon.com/J.R.-Pournelle/e/B004HATW9E J.R. Pournelle].

File:Jerry Pournelle on writing Science Fiction and hosting lots of Computers at home (Interview 1990).mp3

Pournelle began using a computer to write in 1977 on the advice of his "mad" friend Dan MacLean.{{r|riley19851027}} He wrote the "Computing at Chaos Manor" column in Byte, describing experiences with computer hardware and software, some purchased and some sent by vendors for review, at his home office. Because Pournelle was then, according to the magazine, "virtually Byte{{'}}s only writer who was a mere user—he didn't create compilers and computers, he merely used them", it began as "The User's Column" in July 1980. Subtitled "Omikron TRS-80 Boards, NEWDOS+, and Sundry Other Matters", an Editor's Note accompanied the article:{{r|lemmons198406}}{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |date=July 1980 |title=Omikron TRS-80 Boards, NEWDOS+, and Sundry Other Matters |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1980-07/1980_07_BYTE_05-07_Computers_and_Education#page/n199/mode/2up |access-date=October 18, 2013 |magazine=Byte |page=198}}

{{Blockquote|The other day we were sitting around the Byte offices listening to software and hardware explosions going off around us in the microcomputer world. We wondered, "Who could cover some of the latest developments for us in a funny, frank (and sometimes irascible) style?" The phone rang. It was Jerry Pournelle with an idea for a funny, frank (and sometimes irascible) series of articles to be presented in Byte on a semi-regular (i.e.: every 2 to 3 months) basis, which would cover the wild microcomputer goings-on at the Pournelle House ("Chaos Manor") in Southern California. We said yes. Herewith the first installment ...}}

Pournelle stated that

{{Blockquote|This will be a column by and for computer users, and with rare exceptions I won't discuss anything I haven't installed and implemented here in Chaos Manor. At Chaos Manor we have computer users ranging in sophistication from my 9-year-old through a college-undergraduate assistant and up to myself. (Not that I'm the last word in sophistication, but I do sit here and pound this machine a lot; if I can't get something to work, it takes an expert.) Fair warning, then: the very nature of this column limits its scope. I can't talk about anything I can't run on my machines, nor am I likely to discuss things I have no use for.}}

Among recurring characters were Pournelle's family members, friends, and many computers.{{r|riley19851027}} He introduced to readers "my friend Ezekiel, who happens to be a Cromemco Z-2 with iCom 8-inch soft-sectored floppy disk drives"; he also owned a TRS-80 Model I, and the first subject discussed in the column was an add-on that permitted it to use the same data and CP/M applications as the Cromemco.{{r|pournelle198007}} The next column appeared in December 1980 with the subtitle "BASIC, Computer Languages, and Computer Adventures";{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |date=December 1980 |title=BASIC, Computer Languages, and Computer Adventures |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1980-12/1980_12_BYTE_05-12_Adventure#page/n223/mode/2up |access-date=October 18, 2013 |magazine=Byte |page=222}} Ezekiel II, a Compupro S-100 CP/M system, debuted in March 1983.{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |date=March 1983 |title=Sage in Bloom, Zeke II, CBIOS Traps, Language Debate Continues |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1983-03/1983_03_BYTE_08-03_Mass_Storage#page/n219/mode/2up |access-date=October 19, 2013 |magazine=Byte |page=218}} Other computers received nicknames, such as Zorro, Pournelle's "colorful" Zenith Z-100, and Lucy Van Pelt, a "fussbudget" IBM PC;{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |date=October 1984 |title=Minor Problems |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1984-10/1984_10_BYTE_09-11_Databases#page/n313/mode/2up |access-date=October 23, 2013 |magazine=Byte |page=317}} he referred to generic PC compatibles as "PClones". Pournelle often denounced companies that announced vaporware, sarcastically writing that they would arrive "Real Soon Now"{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |date=November 1984 |title=NCC Reflections |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1984-11/1984_11_BYTE_09-12_New_Chips#page/n359/mode/2up |access-date=October 23, 2013 |magazine=Byte |page=361}} (later abbreviated to just "RSN"), and those that used software copy protection.{{r|riley19851027}} As part of a redesign in June 1984, the magazine renamed the popular column to "Computing at Chaos Manor", and the accompanying letter column became "Chaos Manor Mail".{{Cite magazine |last=Lemmons |first=Phil |date=June 1984 |title=BYTE's New Look |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1984-06/1984_06_BYTE_09-06_Computers_and_Education#page/n3/mode/2up |access-date=October 23, 2013 |magazine=Byte |page=6 |type=editorial}}

Pournelle preferred 8-inch floppy disks to 5 1/4 inch disks as late as 1982,{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |date=September 1982 |title=Letters, Pascal, CB/80, and Cardfile |url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1982-09/page/n314/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=2024-12-30 |magazine=BYTE |pages=318–341}} and still used "Zeke" to write as late as 1987, but admitted that he would soon have to use PCs because tools like Borland Sidekick were unavailable. He hesitated, Pournelle said, because Niven would buy two exact copies of his writing computer and software.{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |date=October 1987 |title=New Life for Lucy |url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1987-10-rescan/1987_10_BYTE_12-11_Heuristic_Algorithms/page/n273/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=2024-08-18 |magazine=BYTE |pages=251–264 |language=English}} He announced in February 1989 that the Smithsonian had asked for "Zeke" as part of a history of computing.{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |date=February 1989 |title=Ready Line Overload |url=https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1989-02_OCR/page/n175/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=2024-10-08 |magazine=BYTE |pages=121–137}} A memorable column in August 1989 was "The Great Power Spike", which gives a digital necropsy of his electronic equipment after high voltage transmission wires dropped onto the power line for his neighborhood.Pournelle, Jerry. "Computing at Chaos Manor: the great power spike." Byte 14, no. 8 (1989): 99-110.{{cite web|url=https://www.jerrypournelle.com/computing/august89.html|title=Byte August 1989 The Great Power Spike|website=www.jerrypournelle.com|access-date=September 1, 2019}}

After the print version of Byte ended publication in the United States, Pournelle continued publishing the column for the online version and international print editions of Byte. In July 2006, Pournelle and Byte declined to renew their contract{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}} and Pournelle moved the column to his own web site, Chaos Manor Reviews.{{cite web|url=http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/ |title=Chaos Manor Reviews |publisher=Chaos Manor Reviews |access-date=2017-08-31}}

Pournelle claimed to be the first author to have written a published book contribution using a word processor on a personal computer, in 1977.{{cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/9/16279582/jerry-pournelle-science-fiction-author-writing-computers-obituary|title=RIP Jerry Pournelle, the first author to write a novel on a computer|date=September 9, 2017}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5gUEDAAAQBAJ&q=Pournelle|title=Track Changes|first=Matthew G.|last=Kirschenbaum|date=May 2, 2016|publisher=Harvard University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780674969445}}

In the 1980s, Pournelle was an editor and columnist for Survive, a survivalist magazine.{{cite web|url=http://jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/Survive1.html|title=Notes from a Survival Sage|website=jerrypournelle.com}} He wrote the monthly column "The Micro Revolution" for Popular Computing from April 1984 until the magazine's closure in December 1985. The column focused on the ways microcomputers were reshaping society.{{cite journal |title=Coming Up |page=222 |volume=3 |issue=5 |date=March 1984 |journal=Popular Computing |publisher=McGraw-Hill, Inc. }}{{cite journal |title=Micro Revolution |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |page=60 |volume=5 |issue=2 |date=December 1985 |journal=Popular Computing |publisher=McGraw-Hill, Inc.}}

In 2011, Pournelle joined journalist Gina Smith, pundit John C. Dvorak, political cartoonist Ted Rall, and several other Byte.com staff reporters to launch an independent tech and political news site, aNewDomain.net{{cite AV media

| people = Laporte, Leo; Dvorak, John C.; Silverman, Dwight; Pournelle, Jerry

| date = 8 January 2012

| title = This Week in Tech 335 : Is Twitter Worth Doing? ; CES secrets, self publishing, AppleTV strategy, Kodak's decline, walking safely, and more.

| url = https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/335

| access-date = 30 January 2019

| minutes = 7

| location = Petaluma, California

| publisher = TWiT

| quote = Are you writing for her, too? I'm working with her. [...] the name of her site is some weird name [...] A new domain

}} Pournelle served as director of aNewDomain until his death.{{cite web|date=30 January 2019|url=http://anewdomain.net/authors/|quote=An award-winning science fiction author, Jerry Pournelle is the best-known columnist in tech journalism history. His BYTE magazine column, Computing at Chaos Manor, was legendary. Now Jerry is our lead commentator at aNewDomain, where he is reprising that column. Email Jerry at Jerry@aNewDomain.net or jerry@jerrypournelle.com and check out his site at jerrypournelle.com.|title=Our Authors}}

After 1998, Pournelle maintained a website with a daily online journal, "View from Chaos Manor," a blog dating from before the use of that term.{{cite web|url=http://www.jerrypournelle.com/ |title=Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor |publisher=Jerrypournelle.com |date=2011-06-25 |access-date=2017-08-31}} It is a collection of his "Views" and "Mail" from a large variety of readers. This is a continuation of his 1980s blog-like online journal on GEnie. He said he resists using the term "blog" because he considered the word ugly, and because he maintained that his "View" is primarily a vehicle for writing rather than a collection of links. In his book Dave Barry in Cyberspace, humorist Dave Barry has fun with Pournelle's guru column in Byte magazine.

Pournelle, in collaboration with his wife, Roberta (who was an expert on reading education) wrote the commercial education software program called Reading: The Learning Connection.{{cite web|url=https://www.jerrypournelle.com/OldReading.html|title=Mrs. Pournelle's Reading Program|website=www.jerrypournelle.com|access-date=September 1, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.readingtlc.com/|title=Literacy Connection - The Reading Program|website=www.readingtlc.com|access-date=September 1, 2019}}

Pournelle served as campaign research director for the mayoral campaign of 1969 for Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty (Democrat), working under campaign director Henry Salvatori."Yorty Campaign Reorganized; Henry Salvatori Takes Charge", KENNETH REICH, Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1969. The election took place on May 27, 1969."Will Be Glad to Meet Bradley to Heal Any Wounds, Yorty Says", Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1969. Pournelle was later named Executive Assistant to the Mayor in charge of research in September 1969, but resigned from the position after two weeks."Key Assistant to Yorty Quits After 2 Weeks", Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1969. After leaving Yorty's office, in 1970 he was a consultant to the Professional Educators of Los Angeles (PELA), a group opposed to the unionization of school teachers in LA."UTLA Captures 6 of 9 Positions on Teacher Council", Harry Bernstein, Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1970.

He is sometimes quoted as describing his politics as "somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan."{{cite web |url=http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004057.html |title=Bush Medical Research Funding Lags Inflation Again | work =FuturePundit |date=2007-02-05 |access-date=2017-08-31 |archive-date=June 14, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614174848/http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004057.html |url-status=dead }} Pournelle resisted others classifying him into any particular political group, but acknowledged the approximate accuracy of the term paleoconservatism as applying to him. He distinguished his conservativism from the alternative neoconservatism, noting that he had been drummed out of the Conservative movement by "the egregious Frum", referring to prominent neoconservative, David Frum.{{cite web|url=https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/congressional-immunity-and-the-constitution-the-egregious-frum-space-development-and-other-mail/|title=Congressional Immunity and the Constitution; the Egregious Frum; space development; and other mail | first = Jerry | last = Pournelle|website= Chaos Manor |access-date=September 1, 2019}} Notably, Pournelle opposed the Gulf War and the Iraq War, maintaining that the money would be better spent developing energy technologies for the United States. According to a Wall Street Journal article, "Pournelle estimates that for what the Iraq war has cost so far, the United States could have paid for a network of nuclear power stations sufficient to achieve energy independence, and bankrupt the Arabs for once and for all."{{cite news|url= https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122704588893938723|title=Bush No More|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=July 8, 2004|access-date=September 1, 2019}}

Pournelle created the Pournelle chart in his doctoral dissertation, a 2-dimensional coordinate system used to distinguish political ideologies. It is a cartesian diagram in which the X-axis gauges opinion toward state and centralized government (farthest right being state worship, farthest left being the idea of a state as the "ultimate evil"), and the Y-axis measures the belief that all problems in society have rational solutions (top being complete confidence in rational planning, bottom being complete lack of confidence in rational planning).{{cite web| work = Baen | url=http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm |title= The Pournelle Political Axes |access-date=2019-08-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050407204125/http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm |archive-date=April 7, 2005 }}

In a 1997 article, Norman Spinrad wrote that Pournelle had written the SDI portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address, as part of a plan to use SDI to get more money for space exploration using the larger defense budget.{{cite web | work = Le Monde diplomatique | url= http://mondediplo.com/1999/07/14star|title=Too high the moon|date=July 1, 1999}} Pournelle wrote in response that while the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy "wrote parts of Reagan's 1983 SDI speech, and provided much of the background for the policy, we certainly did not write the speech… We were not trying to boost space, we were trying to win the Cold War". The Council's first report in 1980{{cite web |url= http://www.jerrypournelle.com/debates/nasa-sdi.html |title=Le Monde, SDI, Space, and The Council | work =Jerry | last = Pournelle |access-date= 2017-08-31}} became the transition team policy paper on space for the incoming Reagan administration. The third report was quoted in the Reagan "Star Wars" speech.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Pournelle suggested several "laws". He used the term "Pournelle's law" for the expression "One user, one CPU". He later amended this to "One user, at least one CPU" in a column in InfoWorld."A User's View" InfoWorld November 28, 1988 page 52 He also used the term "Pournelle's law" for "Silicon is cheaper than iron." That is, a computer is cheaper to upgrade than replace. A second aspect of this law was Pournelle's prediction that hard disk drives would eventually be replaced by solid-state memory,{{cite web|url=http://new.lowendmac.com/blast/byte0990.html|title=Byte, September 1990|website=new.lowendmac.com|access-date=September 1, 2019}} although he admitted that bubble memory had failed to do so as he had expected.{{r|pournelle198710}} He has also used "Pournelle's law" to apply to the importance of checking cable connections when diagnosing computer problems: "You'll find by and large, the trouble is a cable."{{cite web|url=https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/pournelles-law/|title=Pournelle's Law – Chaos Manor – Jerry Pournelle|website=www.jerrypournelle.com |access-date=September 1, 2019}} Another Pournelle's Law is "If you don’t know what you’re doing, deal with those who do".{{Cite news |last=Riley |first=John |date=1985-10-27 |title=LORD OF CHAOS MANOR : Hoping for a message from a long-lost friend. |language=en-US |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-27-tm-13029-story.html |access-date=2021-05-22}}

Another "law" of his is "Pournelle's iron law of bureaucracy":

{{Blockquote|In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals that the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.{{cite web|url=http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail408.html#Iron |title=Current Chaos Manor mail |publisher=Jerrypournelle.com |access-date=2017-08-31}}}}

He eventually restated it as:

{{Blockquote|Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration. Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc. The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.{{cite web|url=http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html |title=The Iron law of Bureaucracy |publisher=Jerrypournelle.com |date=2010-09-11 |access-date=2020-09-17}}}}

This is related to the iron law of oligarchy and to the Self-licking ice cream cone.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} His blog, "The View from Chaos Manor", often references apparent examples of the law.{{Cite web |title=Executive Orders and Responsibility; Civil Service and the Iron Law; Draining the Swap. Space Council; and other important matters – Chaos Manor – Jerry Pournelle |url=https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/executive-orders-and-responsibility-civil-service-and-the-iron-law-draining-the-swap-space-council-and-other-important-matters/ |access-date=2024-04-09 |website=www.jerrypournelle.com}} Some of Pournelle's standard themes that recur in the stories are: welfare states become self-perpetuating, building a technological society requires a strong defense and the rule of law, and "those who forget history are condemned to repeat it".

Pournelle never won a Hugo Award. He said, "Money will get you through times of no Hugos better than Hugos will get you through times of no money."{{cite book | last = Niven | first = Larry | title = Scatterbrain | page=285 | publisher = Tor | location = New York | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0765340474 }} The Mote in God's Eye and Inferno were both nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1975.{{cite web |title=Jerry Pournelle |url=https://nebulas.sfwa.org/nominees/jerry-pournelle/ |website=Nebula Awards |publisher=Science Fictions & Fantasy Writers Association |access-date=6 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906191830/https://nebulas.sfwa.org/nominees/jerry-pournelle/ |archive-date=6 September 2023 |url-status=live}}

• Bronze Medal, American Security Council, 1964
• John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 1973
• Inkpot Award, 1979[https://www.comic-con.org/awards/inkpot Inkpot Award]
• Prometheus Hall of Fame Jerry Pournelle / John F. Carr (editors), The Survival of Freedom 1991{{cite web|url=http://lfs.org/awards.shtml|title=Libertarian Futurist Society|website=lfs.org|access-date=September 1, 2019}}
• Prometheus Award for Fallen Angels 1992
• Seiun Award for Foreign Novel (in Japanese translation): 1998, Fallen Angels
• Heinlein Society Award (with frequent co-author Larry Niven) 2005{{cite web|url=http://www.heinleinsociety.org/pressreleases/2005award.html|title=Heinlein Society 2005 Heinlein Award|website=www.heinleinsociety.org|access-date=January 26, 2008|archive-date=December 3, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203081016/http://heinleinsociety.org/pressreleases/2005award.html|url-status=dead}}
• National Space Society Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Award "for lifetime achievement in promoting the goal of a free, spacefaring civilization." 2016NSS, [http://www.nss.org/news/releases/NSS_Release_20160412_pournelle.html Acclaimed Science Fiction Author Dr. Jerry Pournelle Wins the National Space Society Robert A. Heinlein Award] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623005531/http://www.nss.org/news/releases/NSS_Release_20160412_pournelle.html |date=June 23, 2017 }}, April 12, 2016 (accessed April 24, 2016)

• "The SSX concept." Journal of Practical Applications in Space 4 (1993): 161-181. (The SSX concept became the DC-X, the first successful reusable vertical landing rocket craft.)

• Stability and National Security (Air Force Directorate of Doctrines, Concepts and Objectives) (1968){{cite web|date=2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605015318/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD853006&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf|archive-date=June 5, 2011|title=Stability and National Security|volume=1|url-status=dead|url=http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD853006&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf}}
• The Strategy of Technology with Stephan T. Possony, PhD and Francis X. Kane, PhD (1970){{cite web|url=http://www.jerrypournelle.com/slowchange/Strat.html |title=The Strategy of Technology |publisher=Jerrypournelle.com |access-date=2017-08-31}}
• A Step Farther Out: The Velikovsky Affair. Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1975, pp. 74–84.
• A Step Farther Out (1981){{cite book |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |title=A Step Farther Out |publisher=Star |year=1983 |isbn=9780352314154 |location=London}}
• The users guide to small computers (1984)
• Mutually Assured Survival (1984)
• Adventures in Microland (1985)
• Guide to Disc Operating System and Easy Computing (1989)
• Pournelle's PC Communications Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Productivity With a Modem with Michael Banks (1992)
• Jerry Pournelle's Guide to DOS and Easy Computing: DOS over Easy (1992)
• Jerry Pournelle's Windows With an Attitude (1995)
• PC Hardware: The Definitive Guide (2003) with Bob Thompson
• 1001 Computer Words You Need to Know (2004)

• Red Heroin (as Wade Curtis) (1969)
• Red Dragon (as Wade Curtis) (1970)
• Novelisation of the movie Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1973)
• A Spaceship for the King (1973) expanded as King David's Spaceship (1980)
• High Justice (1974)
• Birth of Fire (1976)
• West of Honor (1976) (later integrated into Falkenberg's Legion, and as Arrarat incorporated into The Prince)
• The Mercenary (1977)
• Exiles to Glory (1977)
• Janissaries (1979)
• Men of War (1993)
• Starswarm (1998)
• Prince of Mercenaries (2002)
• Janissaries IV: Mamelukes (2020){{Cite web|date=2020-06-02|title=New Books : 2 June 2020|url=https://locusmag.com/2020/06/new-books-2-june-2020/|access-date=2020-06-07|work=Locus Online|language=en-US|quote=This is credited to Pournelle, who died in 2017, “with contributions from David Weber and the author’s son Phillip Pournelle.”|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607004631/https://locusmag.com/2020/06/new-books-2-june-2020/|archive-date=2020-06-07|url-status=live}}
• Starborn and Godsons (2020)

• The Mote in God's Eye (1974) (with Larry Niven)
• Inferno (1976) (with Larry Niven)
• Lucifer's Hammer (1977) (with Larry Niven)
• Oath of Fealty (1981) (with Larry Niven)
• Footfall (1985) (with Larry Niven)
• The Legacy of Heorot (1987) (with Larry Niven & Steven Barnes)
• Fallen Angels (1991) (with Larry Niven & Michael Flynn) (Prometheus Award) {{ISBN|0-7434-3582-6}}. Electronic edition free at the Baen Free Library
• The Gripping Hand (1993) (with Larry Niven) also known as The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye (UK edition)
• Beowulf's Children (1995) (with Steven Barnes & Larry Niven) also known as The Dragons of Heorot (1995) (UK edition)
• The Burning City (2000) (with Larry Niven)
• Burning Tower (2005) (sequel to The Burning City, with Larry Niven)
• Escape from Hell (2009) (with Larry Niven)

• The Houses of the Kzinti (with S. M. Stirling and Dean Ing)
• The Children's Hour (with S. M. Stirling)
• The Prince anthology (with S. M. Stirling)
• Go Tell The Spartans (2002) (with S. M. Stirling)
• Janissaries II: Clan and Crown (1982) (with Roland J. Green)
• Janissaries III: Storms of Victory (1987) (with Roland J. Green)
• Tran (with Roland J. Green, single-volume combination of the never completed second and third Janissaries novels)
• Higher Education (with Charles Sheffield)

• Heorot
• CoDominium
• Janissaries series

• Triangulation{{cite web|title=Triangulation|website=Twit.tv|url=https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation}} – Dr. Pournelle was interviewed by Leo Laporte for 2 episodes of Triangulation (Episodes 90 and 95) in 2013.
• This Week in Tech – Dr. Pournelle has appeared a number of times as one of the panelists on the podcast This Week in Tech, including episode 427 on October 13, 2013; episode 463 on June 22, 2014; and with Larry Niven in episode 468 on July 27, 2014.
• He also appeared in the science documentary film Target ... Earth? (1980).

• 20 20 Vision (1974)
• The Endless Frontier (anthology series, Vols II-IV edited with John F. Carr), Vols I-IV (1979–92)
• Black Holes (1981)
• The Survival of Freedom (1981) with John F. Carr
• Nebula Award Stories Sixteen (1982) with John F. Carr
• The Endless Frontier, Vol. II (1985) with John F. Carr
• Imperial Stars, vol 1, The Stars at War (1986)
• Imperial Stars, vol 2, Republic and Empire (1987)
• Imperial Stars, vol 3, The Crash of Empire (1989)
• Far Frontiers (anthology series, Vols I-VII edited with Jim Baen), Vols I-VII (1985–86)
• There Will be War (anthology series, Vols I-IX edited with John F. Carr), Vols I–X

{{reflist}}

{{Sister project links|d=Q578031|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|wikt=no|species=no|c=Category:Jerry Pournelle}}

• [https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/ Chaos Manor Musings], a blog by Jerry Pournelle
• {{ISFDB name|1067}}
• {{IMDb name|2689779}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070502064250/http://www.99.nasfic.org/gohs/jerryp.htm Jerry Pournelle (archived)] at 1999 NASFiC website where he was GoH
• [http://www.stormtiger.org/bob/humor/pournell/story.html How Jerry Pournelle got kicked off the ARPANET]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090413040253/http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2009/03/jerry-pournelle-interview.php Jerry Pournelle Interview at AMCtv.com (archived)]
• {{Triangulation|90|Jerry Pournelle}} (Part 1 of 2)
• {{Triangulation|95|Jerry Pournelle}} (Part 2 of 2)
• {{LCAuth|n50020136|Jerry Pournelle|58|}}
• [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183743696/jerry-pournelle Jerry Pournelle] at Find a Grave

{{Inkpot Award 1970s}}

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