L. Sprague de Camp | |
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 L. Sprague andCatherine Crook de Camp atNolacon II in 1988 | |
| Born | Lyon Sprague de Camp (1907-11-27)November 27, 1907 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | November 6, 2000(2000-11-06) (aged 92) Plano, Texas, U.S. |
| Pen name | Lyman R. Lyon (one story)[1] J. Wellington Wells[2] |
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| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1937–1996 |
| Genre | Science fiction, fantasy,alternate history, historical fiction, history |
| Part ofa series on |
| Alternate history |
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Lyon Sprague de Camp (/ˌspreɪɡdəˈkæmp/;[3] November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American author ofscience fiction,fantasy andnon-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.[2]
De Camp was born in New York City, one of three sons of Lyon de Camp, a businessman in real estate and lumber,[4] and Emma Beatrice Sprague. His maternal grandfather was the accountant, banker, pioneeringVolapükist andCivil War veteranCharles Ezra Sprague.[4] De Camp once noted that he rarely used pen-names, "partly because my own true name sounds more like a pseudonym than most pseudonyms do."[5]
De Camp began his education at the Trinity School in New York, then spent ten years attending the Snyder School in North Carolina,[6] a military-style institution. His stay at the Snyder School was an attempt by his parents, who were heavy-handed disciplinarians,[4] to cure him of intellectual arrogance and lack of discipline. He was awkward and thin, an ineffective fighter, and suffered from bullying by his classmates. His experiences at the school taught him to develop a detached, analytical style considered cold by all but his closest friends,[7] though he could, like his father,[4] be disarming and funny in social situations. He would later recall these challenging childhood experiences in the semi-autobiographical storyJudgment Day (1955).[7][8]
An aeronautical engineer by education, de Camp conducted his undergraduate studies at theCalifornia Institute of Technology (where his roommate was at one point notedrocket fuel scientistJohn Drury Clark),[7] and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Caltech inaeronautical engineering 1930.[9] He earned his Master of Science degree in Engineering from theStevens Institute of Technology in 1933. De Camp was also asurveyor and an expert in patents.[2]
His first job was with the Inventors Foundation, Inc. inHoboken, New Jersey, which was taken over by The International Correspondence Schools. De Camp transferred to theScranton, Pennsylvania, division. He was principal of the School of Inventing and Patenting when he resigned in 1937.[7] His first bookInventions and Their Management resulted. It was published in July 1937.
On August 12, 1939, de Camp marriedCatherine Crook,[7][10] with whom he collaborated on science fiction and nonfiction beginning in the 1960s.[2] They had two children.[11]
DuringWorld War II, de Camp served as a researcher at thePhiladelphia Naval Yard along with his fellow writersIsaac Asimov andRobert A. Heinlein. De Camp eventually rose to the rank oflieutenant commander in theU.S. Navy as areserve officer.[7] From 1942 to 1989, the de Camps generally lived near Philadelphia; for decades their home was inVillanova, Pennsylvania.[12]
De Camp was a member of the all-male literary and dining club the "Trap Door Spiders" in New York City, which served as the basis of Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the "Black Widowers." De Camp himself was the model for the character named "Geoffrey Avalon."[13]
De Camp was a founding member of theSwordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loosely knit group ofheroic fantasy writers that was founded during the 1960s and led byLin Carter, with entry by credentials as a fantasy writer alone.
The de Camps moved toPlano, Texas, in 1989, and Sprague de Camp died there on November 6, 2000, seven months after his wife,[14] on what would have been her birthday, at age 92. His ashes were inurned, together with hers, in theArlington National Cemetery inVirginia.
De Camp's personal library of about 1,200 books was acquired for auction byHalf Price Books in 2005. The collection included books inscribed by fellow writers, such asIsaac Asimov andCarl Sagan, as well as de Camp himself.[15]
"Extraterrestrial", a coinage from "extra" + "terrestrial", meaning from beyond earth, is attested as an adjective as early as 1868, according to theOxford English Dictionary. Its first use in connection withlife beyond earth was likely byH. G. Wells, in his 1898 novelThe War of the Worlds.[16][17] L. Sprague de Camp is credited with its first usage as a noun with the meaning of "alien life" and with coining the abbreviation "E.T." in the first part of his two-part article "Design for Life", published in the May 1939 issue ofAstounding Science Fiction.[17][16]
De Camp made a suggestion in 1968 that fossil discoveries had influenced modern reports ofsea monster sightings. The suggestion was made in his article "Dinosaurs in Today's World" inThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction v. 34, no. 3, March 1968, later reprinted in his nonfiction collectionThe Fringe of the Unknown, Buffalo, New York: Prometheus, 1983. In 2019 de Camp's theory was scientifically tested by C. G. M. Paxton and D. Naish, who concluded that trends in the data of reported sightings appear to support his hypothesis.[18]
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De Camp was amaterialist who wrote works examining society, history, technology andmyth. He published numerous short stories, novels, non-fiction works and poems during his long career.[6]
De Camp had the mind of an educator, and a common theme in many of his works is a corrective impulse regarding similar previous works by other authors. A highly rational and logical thinker, he was frequently disturbed by what he regarded as logical lapses and absurdities in others' writings.[6] Some, like Asimov, felt de Camp's conscientiousness about facts limited the scope of his stories: de Camp was reluctant to use technological or scientific concepts (e.g., hyperspace or faster-than-light travel) if he regarded them as impossible.[6][8] Thus, his response toMark Twain'sA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court was to write a similartime travel novel (Lest Darkness Fall) in which the method of time travel was rationalized and the hero's technical expertise both set at a believable level and constrained by the technological limitations of the age.[6][8]
In like fashion, he reimaginedspace opera andplanetary romance in his "Viagens Interplanetarias" series, and the prehistoric precursor civilizations characteristic of muchheroic fantasy in hisPusadian series. When he was not debunking literary conventions he was often explaining them. For example, in theHarold Shea stories co-written with his longtime friendFletcher Pratt (1897–1956), the magical premises of some bodies ofmyths andlegends were accepted but examined and elucidated in terms of their own systems of inherent logic. The imaginative civilizations inThe Compleat Enchanter, for example, are built upon a cultural and technological reality based on scientific formulas. Characters may be transported to these different worlds, but the magic contained within those worlds is only feasible to the extent that it coincides with the technology of the day (e.g., the combustion engine).[19] De Camp's explanatory tendency also carried over into his non-fictional writings, including advice to science fiction writers on handling the different states of languages in future worlds.[20]
De Camp's science fiction is marked by his interests in linguistics, ancient history, and the history and philosophy of science.[21][22][23] His first published story was "The Isolinguals", in the September 1937 issue ofAstounding Science Fiction[7]—the last issue edited byF. Orlin Tremaine, prior to the long tenure ofJohn W. Campbell.[1] Most of his early science fiction stories were unrelated to each other, the exceptions being his "Johnny Black" tales about a black bearuplifted to human-level intelligence, and his "Drinkwhiskey Institute" stories, a series of tall tales involving time travel. Campbell's fantasy magazine,Unknown, was suited to de Camp's idiosyncratic imagination, logic, and sense of humor.[24] He contributed ten novels (five as collaborations), much of it characterized by humor and dry wit.[8] De Camp eschewed the intention of being a satirist, insisting, instead, that the stories he wrote were meant less for instruction or improvement, as satire requires, and more for the amusement of his readers.[7][8]
De Camp's treatment oftime travel andalternate history in stories such asLest Darkness Fall (1939), "The Wheels of If" (1940), "A Gun for Dinosaur" (1956), "Aristotle and the Gun" (1958), andThe Glory That Was (1960) challenged the popular notion of his time that history consisted of an arbitrary series of accidents. Instead, de Camp, through sound background knowledge and logical thought, systematically demonstrated how technological advances could determine the pattern of an eventful history. His display of technological determinism in historical recreation is considered atour de force.[8][25]Lest Darkness Fall, "The Wheels of If" and "Aristotle and the Gun" have been recognized as seminal works in the field of alternate history.[26]
His most extended work was his "Viagens Interplanetarias" series, set in a future where Brazil is the dominant power, particularly a sub-series ofsword and planet novels set on the planet Krishna, beginning withThe Queen of Zamba.[21] His most influentialViagens novel was the non-Krishna workRogue Queen, a tale of a hive society undermined by interstellar contact, which was one of the earliest science fiction novels to deal with sexual themes.[8]
De Camp was best known for his light fantasy, particularly two series written in collaboration with Pratt, theHarold Shea stories (from 1940 et seq.) andGavagan's Bar (from 1950).[1][7]Floyd C. Gale in 1961 said that they "were far and away the finest team of fantasy collaborators".[27] De Camp and Pratt also wrote some stand-alone novels similar in tone to the Harold Shea stories, of which the most highly regarded isLand of Unreason (1942), and de Camp wrote a few more of this genre on his own.[24]
He was also known for hissword and sorcery, a fantasy genre revived partly by his editorial work on and continuation ofRobert E. Howard'sConan cycle.[2][24][28] He also edited a series of fantasy anthologies credited with helping to spark the renaissance of heroic fantasy in the late 1960s.[29]
De Camp also created three noteworthy sword and sorcery sequences. ThePusadian series (from 1951), composed of the novelThe Tritonian Ring and several short stories, is set in anantediluvian era similar to Howard's.
More substantial is theNovarian series (from 1968), of which the core is theReluctant King trilogy, beginning withThe Goblin Tower, de Camp's most accomplished effort in the genre, continuing inThe Clocks of Iraz, and concluding withThe Unbeheaded King. The trilogy features the adventurer Jorian, ex-king of Xylar. Jorian's world is an alternate reality to which our own serves as an afterlife. Other novels in the sequence includeThe Fallible Fiend, a satire told from the point of view of a demon, andThe Honorable Barbarian, a follow-up to the trilogy featuring Jorian's brother as the hero.
The Incorporated Knight series comprises some 1970s short stories by de Camp and two novels written in collaboration with Catherine Crook de Camp,The Incorporated Knight (1988) andThe Pixilated Peeress (1991).[1] The early short stories were incorporated into the first of these. The sequence is set in the medieval era of another alternate world sharing the geography of our own, but in which a Neapolitan empire filled the role ofRome and no universal religion likeChristianity ever arose, leaving its nations split among competing pagan sects. The setting is borrowed in part fromMandeville's Travels.
De Camp also wrote historical fiction set in the era of classical antiquity from the height of theFirst Persian Empire to the waning of theHellenistic period. Five novels published byDoubleday from 1958 to 1969[1] form a loosely connected series based on their common setting and occasional cross references. They were also linked by a common focus on the advancement of scientific knowledge, de Camp's chosen protagonists being explorers, artisans, engineers, innovators and practical philosophers rather than famous names from antiquity, who are relegated to secondary roles. The best known of his historical novels isThe Dragon of the Ishtar Gate.
De Camp's first book wasInventions and Their Management, co-written with Alf K. Berle and published byInternational Textbook Company in 1937: a 733-page book with a three-page list of law cases cited.[1][30]
He enjoyeddebunking doubtful history andpseudoscientific claims about the supernatural. He conducted extensive research for what was to be a book on magic, witchcraft and occultism, though only the first chapter, "The Unwritten Classics" (March 1947), was published in theSaturday Review of Literature.[7] By May 1976, concerned with whatPaul Kurtz described as "an enormous increase in public interest in psychic phenomena, the occult and pseudoscience," de Camp joined the newly formedCommittee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal along with astronomersGeorge Abell,Bart Bok, andCarl Sagan; philosophersBrand Blanshard,Antony Flew,Sidney Hook, andErnest Nagel; authors Isaac Asimov,Daniel Cohen,Charles Fair,Martin Gardner, andPhillip J. Klass; psychologistsRay Hyman andB.F Skinner; and magicianJames Randi.[31] Despite being a long-time writer of fantasy, de Camp did not believe in ghosts in the supernatural sense. His ghosts dwelt only in his mind as memories of his parents. His mother, he wrote in aNew York Times Magazine article, died of an overdose offaith healing.[4] When considering claims of UFO sightings,astrology, and other subjects considered moot by the scientific community, de Camp would address the circular logic expressed by enthusiasts by insisting on first-hand, unbiased, measurable data to back up the claims. "In the history of cultism," de Camp said in aScience News interview, "one is always experiencing a feeling of deja vu."[31]
He explained howancient civilizations produced structures and architecture that many considered to be impossible for them, such as thePyramids ofAncient Egypt. Works in this area includeLost Continents,Citadels of Mystery, andThe Ancient Engineers.
Some others of his many and wide-ranging nonfiction works wereThe Great Monkey Trial (about theScopes Trial),The Ragged Edge of Science,Energy and Power,The Heroic Age of American Invention,The Day of the Dinosaur (which argued, among other things, that evolution took hold afterDarwin because of theVictorian interest spurred by recently popularized dinosaur remains, corresponding tolegends ofdragons),Great Cities of the Ancient World andThe Evolution of Naval Weapons (a United States government textbook).
Published in the July 1938 issue ofAstounding Science Fiction, "Language for Time Travelers" won de Camp the first non-fiction readership monthly honor awarded in the magazine for his exploration of the communication difficulties for time travelers as pronunciation and semantics shift over time.[7]
De Camp's pioneering biographies of fantasy writers were many short articles and full-length studies ofRobert E. Howard andH. P. Lovecraft, the first major independent biographies of both writers. Matthew Hartman, in a review of de Camp'sLovecraft: A Biography, stated that de Camp "does not defend his subject; he criticizes where criticism is due, and he explains in historical and sociological context, rather than attempting to excuse."[32] De Camp's "warts and all" approach to his subjects[33] has been branded by somefans as unflattering and unbalanced. For instance,Mark Finn, author ofBlood & Thunder: The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard, contends that de Camp deliberately framed his questions in regard to Howard to elicit answers matching hisFreudian theories about him.[34]
De Camp also wrote nonfiction radio scripts forVoice of America.[14]
De Camp wrote a number of lesser-known but nonetheless significant works that explored such topics as racism, which he wrote could be more accurately described asethnocentrism, noting that no scholar comparing the merits of various ethnicities has ever sought to prove that his own ethnicity was inferior to others.[35] Isaac Asimov recalled de Camp finding the tendency of authors to portray human characters in outer-space science fiction as superior to aliens analogous to northern Europeans imagining they had some inherent superiority over other races.[36]
De Camp andWilly Ley won the 1953International Fantasy Award for nonfiction recognizing their study of geographical myths,Lands Beyond (Rinehart, 1952).[21][37] De Camp was a guest of honor at the 1966World Science Fiction Convention,[2] and was named the thirdGandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, afterTolkien andFritz Leiber, at the 1976 convention.[37] TheScience Fiction Writers of America made him its fourthSFWA Grand Master in 1979[38] and he won theWorld Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984,[37] a Special AchievementSidewise Award for Alternate History in 1996, citing "seminal works in the field,"[26] and theHugo Award for Nonfiction in 1997 for his autobiography,Time and Chance.[2][37]
At a meeting of the executive council of theCommittee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) inDenver, Colorado, in April 2011, de Camp was selected for inclusion in CSI's Pantheon of Skeptics. The Pantheon of Skeptics was created by CSI to remember the legacy of deceased fellows of CSI and their contributions to the cause of scientific skepticism.[39] CSI was previously known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP).[40]
L. Sprague de Camp has been depicted in fictional works by a number of other authors.Randall Garrett conflated him withJ. R. R. Tolkien'sGandalf in the character of the magician "Sir Lyon Gandolphus Gray" in hisLord Darcy series. He was the model for the "Geoffrey Avalon" character in Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the "Black Widowers,"[13] and the unnamed court magician inLawrence Watt-Evans' "Return to Xanadu" (The Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp, 2005).
He also appears without fictional disguise in the short stories "Green Fire" byEileen Gunn,Andy Duncan,Pat Murphy, andMichael Swanwick (Asimov's Science Fiction, April 2000) and "Father Figures" bySusan Shwartz (The Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp, 2005),[41] and in the novelsIn the Courts of the Crimson Kings (2008) byS. M. Stirling andThe Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown (2011) byPaul Malmont.
A semi-fictionalized version of de Camp appears in the third episode of the 2017 TV seriesManhunt: Unabomber, as one of several academics and authors consulted by the FBI on the basis of the citation of their work in theUnabomber Manifesto. In the scene depicting this meeting, de Camp's name appears on a placard as "L. Sprague de Camp,S.A.G.A. Author,The Ancient Engineers." De Camp's name does not specifically appear in the episode credits, which identify the roles of actors in the scene as composite characters.The Ancient Engineers is cited in endnote 18 of the manifesto.
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