Philip José Farmer

Philip José Farmer was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He published nearly 60 novels, over 100 short stories, novellas, two "fictional biographies," and numerous essays. He is most renowned for his Riverworld and World of Tiers series.

Farmer was born in North Terre Haute, Indiana, and grew up in Peoria, Illinois, where he attended Peoria High School. His father worked as a civil engineer and a supervisor at a local power company. An avid reader from a young age, Farmer decided to become a writer in the fourth grade. He received basic religious training in the Church of Christ, and Scientist but became an agnostic at 14 and later an atheist.

In 1941, Farmer married Bette V. Andre, and they had one son and one daughter. After washing out of flight training during World War II, he worked in a local steel mill. He continued his education and earned a bachelor's degree in English from Bradley University in 1950.

Farmer's first literary breakthrough came with the novella The Lovers, published in Startling Stories in 1952. It depicted a sexual relationship between a human and an extraterrestrial. This groundbreaking story earned him a Hugo Award for Best New SF Author or Artist in 1953. Encouraged by this success, he quit his job to write full-time.

Farmer won first prize in a publisher's contest for the novel Owe for the Flesh, which contained the foundation for his later Riverworld series. However, the book was not published, and he did not receive the prize money.

Financial difficulties led Farmer to a career as a technical writer for defense contractors from 1956 to 1970, while he wrote science fiction in his spare time. His second Hugo Award came in 1968 for the novella Riders of the Purple Wage. This success allowed him to return to full-time writing in 1969. His most productive period began in 1970 when he returned to Peoria and published 25 books over the next decade.

Farmer is best known for the Riverworld series, which includes To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971), The Fabulous Riverboat (1971), The Dark Design (1977), The Magic Labyrinth (1980), and Gods of Riverworld (1983). The first novel in this series, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, won him a third Hugo Award in 1972.

The World of Tiers series is another notable work, consisting of The Maker of Universes (1965), The Gates of Creation (1966), A Private Cosmos (1968), Behind the Walls of Terra (1970), The Lavalite World (1977), and More Than Fire (1993). These novels depict a race of Lords who create their pocket universes.

Farmer's works often explored sexual and religious themes, and he enjoyed reworking the lore of celebrated pulp heroes. His Wold Newton family books, such as The Other Log of Phileas Fogg (1973) and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (1973), tie classic fictional characters together as real people and blood relatives resulting from an alien conspiracy.

In 2001, Farmer was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America and won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. He passed away on February 25, 2009, aged 91.

Photo credit: www.pjfarmer.com