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Biography | Leigh
Brackett
Titles from Haffner Press | Selected
Bibilography
LEIGH
BRACKETT (December
7, 1915– March
18, 1978)
A
writer of science fiction, mystery novels and — best
known to the general public — Hollywood screenplays, most
notably The Big Sleep (1945), Rio Bravo (1959), The Long Goodbye (1973) and the first draft
of The Empire
Strikes Back (1980).
Brackett's first
published science fiction story was "Martian Quest", which appeared in
the February 1940 issue of Astounding Science
Fiction.
Her earliest years as a writer (1940-1942) were her most productive in
numbers of stories written; however, these works show a writer still
engaged in mastering her craft. The first of her science fiction
stories still attempt to emphasize a quasi-scientific angle, with
problems resolved by an appeal to the (usually imaginary) chemical,
biological, or physical laws of her invented worlds. As Brackett became
more comfortable as an author, this element receded and was replaced by
adventure stories with a strong touch of fantasy. Occasional stories
have social themes, such as "The Citadel of Lost Ships" (1943), which
considers the effects on the native cultures of alien worlds of Earth's
expanding trade empire.
Brackett's first
novel, No
Good from a Corpse, published in 1944,
was a hard-boiled mystery novel in the
tradition of Raymond Chandler. Hollywood director Howard
Hawks was so
impressed by this novel that he had his secretary call in "this guy
Brackett" to help William Faulkner write the script for The Big Sleep (1946). The film,
starring Humphrey Bogart and written by Leigh
Brackett, William Faulkner, and Jules
Furthman, is
considered one of the best movies ever made in the genre.
At the same time, Brackett's science fiction stories were becoming more
ambitious. Shadow
Over Mars
(1944) was her first novel-length science fiction story, and though
still somewhat rough-edged, marked the beginning of a new style,
strongly influenced by the characterization of the 1940s detective
story and film noir. Brackett's heroes from this period are tough,
two-fisted, semi-criminal, ill-fated adventurers. Shadow's Rick
Urquhart (reputedly modelled on Humphrey Bogart's shadier film
characters) is a ruthless, selfish space drifter, who just happens to
be caught in a web of political intrigue that accidentally places the
fate of Mars in his hands.
In 1946, the same year that Brackett married science fiction author Edmond Hamilton, Planet Stories published the
novella "Lorelei of the Red Mist". Brackett only finished the first
half before turning it over to Planet Stories' other acclaimed
author, Ray Bradbury, so that she could
leave to work on The Big Sleep.
"Lorelei"'s main character is an out-and-out criminal, a thief called
Hugh Starke. Though the story was well concluded by Bradbury, Brackett
seems to have felt that her ideas in this story were insufficiently
addressed, as she returns to them in later stories—particularly
"Enchantress of Venus" (1949).
Brackett
returned from her break from science-fiction writing,
caused by her cinematic endeavors, in 1948. From then on to 1951, she
produced a series of science fiction adventure stories that were
longer, more ambitious, and better written than her previous work. To
this period belong such classic representations of her planetary
settings as "The Moon that Vanished" and the novel-length Sea-Kings of Mars (1949), later
published as The
Sword of Rhiannon, a vivid description
of Mars before its oceans evaporated.
With "Queen of the Martian Catacombs" (1949), Brackett found for the
first time a character that she cared to return to. Brackett's Eric John Stark is sometimes
compared to Robert E. Howard's Conan, but is in many
respects closer to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan or Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli. Stark, an orphan
from Earth, is raised by the semi-sentient aboriginals of Mercury,
who are later killed by Earthmen. He is saved from the same fate by a
Terran official, who adopts Stark and becomes his mentor. When
threatened, however, Eric John Stark frequently reverts to the
primitive N'Chaka, the "man without a tribe" that he was on Mercury.
Thus, Stark is the archetypical modern man—a beast with a thin veneer
of civilization. From 1949 to 1951, Stark (whose name obviously echoes
that of the hero in "Lorelei") appeared in three tales, all published
in Planet
Stories; the
aforementioned "Queen", "Enchantress of
Venus", and finally "Black Amazon of Mars". With this last story
Brackett's period of writing high adventure ends.
Brackett's stories thereafter adopted a more elegiac tone. They no
longer celebrate the conflicts of frontier worlds, but lament the
passing away of civilizations. The stories now concentrate more upon
mood than on plot. The reflective, retrospective nature of these
stories is indicated in the titles: "The Last Days of Shandakor";
"Shannach — the Last"; "Last Call from Sector 9G". This last story was
published in the very last issue (Summer 1955) of Planet Stories, always Brackett's
most reliable market for science fiction. With the disappearance of Planet Stories and, later in 1955,
of Startling
Stories and Thrilling Wonder
Stories,
the market for Brackett's brand of story dried up, and the first phase
of her career as a science fiction author ended. A few other stories
trickled out over the next decade, and old stories were revised and
published as novels. A new production of this period was one of
Brackett's most critically acclaimed science fiction novels, The Long Tomorrow (1955). This novel
describes an agrarian, deeply technophobic society that develops after
a nuclear war.
But most of Brackett's writing after 1955 was for the more lucrative
film and television markets. In 1963 and 1964, she briefly returned to
her old Martian milieu with a pair of stories; "The Road to Sinharat"
can be regarded as an affectionate farewell to the world of "Queen of
the Martian Catacombs", while the other – with the intentionally
ridiculous title of "Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon" – borders on
parody.
After another hiatus of nearly a decade, Brackett returned to science
fiction in the seventies with the publication of The Ginger Star (1974), The Hounds of Skaith (1974), and The Reavers of Skaith (1976), collected as The Book of Skaith in 1976.
This trilogy brought Eric John Stark back for adventures upon the
extrasolar planet of Skaith (rather than his old haunts of Mars and
Venus). A fourth Stark novel was planned with Ballantine Books editor
Lester del Rey, but was abandoned (and no actual manuscript was begun)
when Brackett was offered the scipting duty for the sequel to Star Wars.
Most of Brackett's
science fiction can be characterized as space
opera or planetary romance. Almost all of her
planetary romances take place within a common invented universe, the Leigh Brackett Solar System,
which contains richly detailed fictional versions of the consensus Mars
and Venus of science fiction in the 1930s–1950s. Mars thus appears as a
marginally habitable desert world, populated by ancient, decadent, and
mostly humanoid races; Venus as a primitive, wet jungle planet,
occupied by vigorous, primitive tribes and reptilian monsters.
Brackett's Skaith combines elements of Brackett's other worlds with
fantasy elements.
The fact that the settings of Brackett's stories range from a
rocket-crowded interplanetary space to the superstitious backwaters of
primitive or decadent planets allows her a great deal of scope for
variation in style and subject matter. In a single story, Brackett can
veer from space opera to hard-boiled detective fiction to Western to
the borders of Celtic-inspired fantasy. Brackett cannot, therefore, be
easily classified as a sword-and-planet science fantasy
writer; though swords and spears may show up in the most primitive
regions of her planets, guns, blasters and electric-shock generators
are more common weapons.
Though the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs
is apparent in Brackett's Mars stories, the differences between their
versions of Mars are great. Brackett's Mars is set firmly in a world of
interplanetary commerce and competition, and one of the most prominent
themes of Brackett's stories is the clash of planetary civilizations;
the stories both illustrate and criticize the effects of colonialism
on civilizations which are either older or younger than those of the
colonizers, and thus they have relevance to this day. Burroughs' heroes
set out to remake entire worlds according to their own codes;
Brackett's heroes (often anti-heroes) are at the mercy of trends and
movements far bigger than they are.
—adapted from the Wikipedia entry on Leigh
Brackett
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LEIGH
BRACKETT TITLES FROM HAFFNER PRESS
click an image for a contents page for each title
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Martian Quest (ss)
Astounding Feb ’40
The Treasure of Ptakuth (ss) Astounding Apr ’40
The Tapestry Gate (ss) Strange Stories Aug ’40
The Stellar Legion (ss) Planet Stories Win ’40
The Demons of Darkside (ss) Startling Stories Jan ’41
Water Pirate (ss) Super Science Stories Jan ’41
Interplanetary Reporter (ss) Startling Stories May ’41
The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter (ss) Planet Stories Sum ’41
Lord of the Earthquake (nv) Science Fiction Jun ’41
No Man’s Land in Space (nv) Amazing Jul ’41
A World Is Born (ss) Comet Jul ’41
Retreat to the Stars (ss) Astonishing Stories Nov ’41
Child of the Green Light (ss) Super Science Stories Feb ’42
The Sorcerer of Rhiannon (nv) Astounding Feb ’42
Child of the Sun (nv) Planet Stories Spr ’42
Out of the Sea (nv) Astonishing Stories Jun ’42
Cube from Space (nv) Super Science Stories Aug ’42
Outpost on Io (ss) Planet Stories Win ’42
The Halfling (nv) Astonishing Stories Feb ’43
Citadel of Lost Ships (nv) Planet Stories Mar ’43
The Blue Behemoth (nv) Planet Stories May ’43
Thralls of the Endless Night (nv) Planet Stories Fll ’43
The Jewel of Bas (nv) Planet Stories Spr ’44 [*Mouse]
The Veil of Astellar (nv) Thrilling Wonder Stories Spr ’44
Terror Out of Space (nv) Planet Stories Sum ’44
Shadow Over Mars (na) Startling Stories Fll ’44
The Vanishing Venusians (nv) Planet Stories Spr ’45
Lorelei of the Red Mist [with Ray Bradbury] (na) Planet Stories Sum ’46
The Moon that Vanished (nv) Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct ’48
The Moonfire Gods (nv) Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct ’48
The Beast-Jewel of Mars (nv) Planet Stories Win ’48
Quest of the Starhope (ss) Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr ’49
Queen of the Martian Catacombs (na) Planet Stories Sum ’49 [*Eric John
Stark]
Sea-Kings of Mars (na) Thrilling Wonder Stories Jun ’49
Enchantress of Venus (na) Planet Stories Fll ’49 [*Eric John Stark]
The Lake of the Gone Forever (nv) Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct ’49
The Dancing Girl of Ganymede (nv) Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb ’50
The Truants (nv) Startling Stories Jul ’50
The Citadel of Lost Ages (na) Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec ’50
Black Amazon of Mars (na) Planet Stories Mar ’51 [*Eric John Stark]
The Starmen of Llyrdis (na) Startling Stories Mar ’51
The Woman from Altair (nv) Startling Stories Jul ’51
The Shadows (ss) Startling Stories Feb ’52
The Last Days of Shandakor (nv) Startling Stories Apr ’52
Shannach—the Last (nv) Planet Stories Nov ’52
The Big Jump (na) Space Stories Feb ’53
The Ark of Mars (nv) Planet Stories Sep ’53
Mars Minus Bisha (ss) Planet Stories Jan ’54
Runaway (nv) Startling Stories Spr ’54
Teleportress of Alpha C (nv) Planet Stories Win ’54
The Tweener (ss) F&SF Feb ’55
Last Call from Sector 9G (na) Planet Stories Sum ’55
The Queer Ones (nv) Venture Mar ’57
The Strange Ones (nv) Venture Mar ’57
All the Colors of the Rainbow (nv) Venture Nov ’57
The Road to Sinharat (nv) Amazing May ’63
Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon (ss) F&SF Oct ’64
Mommies and Daddies (ss) Crisis, ed. Roger Elwood, Nelson, 1974
Stark and the Star Kings [with Edmond Hamilton] (nv) Stark and the Star
Kings, Haffner Press, 2005 [*Eric John Stark]
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Seventy-Five: The Diamond Anniversary of a
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