Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance arrived in the world on the 28th of August 1916. His family lived in a large house on Filbert Street in San Francisco during his early years. The Great Depression struck when he was young and forced his mother to move him and his siblings to a ranch near Oakley. This location sat within the delta of the Sacramento River. The loss of their city home coincided with the death of his maternal grandfather who had supported the family financially. Vance left junior college to work and support himself during these hard times. He took jobs as a bellhop, worked in a cannery, and labored on a gold dredge. He described this period as a time where he developed from an impractical intellectual into a reckless young man competent at many skills.
Vance began trying to become a professional writer in the late 1940s. His first lucrative sale involved one of the Magnus Ridolph stories sold to Twentieth Century Fox. That money supported the Vances for a year of travel through Europe. He wrote science fiction stories for pulps in the 1940s and 1950s before moving toward mystery novels under pseudonyms. He published fifteen novels outside of science fiction and fantasy including three books written under the name Ellery Queen. Vance stopped working in the mystery genre in the early 1970s except for science-fiction mysteries. His transition from pulp magazines to recognized authorship did not occur until the 1970s when he established himself fully as a writer.
His original title for the Dying Earth series was Mazirian the Magician. These fantasy stories appeared in 1950 several years after he had started publishing science fiction in pulp magazines. The setting depicted a far distant future where the sun slowly went out while magic and technology coexisted. Cugel the Clever served as a ne'er-do-well scoundrel whose picaresque adventures defined much of this cycle. Rhialto the Marvellous also appeared as a magician within these pages. Books were written in 1963, 1978, and 1981 to expand upon this world. Michael Shea wrote an authorized sequel called A Quest for Simbilis featuring Cugel before Vance completed his own sequel known as Cugel's Saga. Shea's book went into print before Vance's version but remained entirely in keeping with Vance's vision.
By the 1960s Vance developed a futuristic setting he came to call the Gaean Reach. This fictional region of space settled by humans became the home for all his later science fiction work. Old Earth or Gaia sat at the center of this expanding loose agglomerate. Each planet possessed its own history state of development and culture. Conditions tended toward peaceable commerce and exoticism within the Reach itself. At the edges lay the lawless Beyond where conditions were usually less secure. The Oikumene phase exhibited an aura of colonial adventure and commerce. Later iterations became peace-loving and stolidly middle class. Battles were rarely direct conflicts but rather low-intensity struggles between alien cultures.
Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984. He received Hugo Awards in 1963 for The Dragon Masters and again in 1967 for The Last Castle. A third Hugo Award arrived in 2010 for his memoir titled This Is Me Jack Vance! The Nebula Award followed in 1966 also for The Last Castle. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001 as part of its sixth class. Steven Gould president of the Science Fiction Writers of America described Vance as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A 2009 profile in The New York Times Magazine called him one of American literature's most distinctive voices despite being undervalued by many critics.
An Integral Edition of all Vance's works appeared in a limited edition of forty-four hardback volumes. A special forty-fifth volume contained the three novels written under the name Ellery Queen. Volunteers created this project from 1999 to 2006 working via the internet under the author's own aegis. Three hundred volunteers contributed their time to complete the massive undertaking. In 2010 Afton House Books presented The Complete Jack Vance in six large volumes using texts prepared by the Integral Edition team. Spatterlight Press started offering DRM-free e-book editions of many works based on source texts collected by the Integral Edition project in 2012. Gollancz began using VIE texts in their SF Gateway editions starting that same year.
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Common questions
When was Jack Vance born and where did he live during his early years?
John Holbrook Vance arrived in the world on the 28th of August 1916. His family lived in a large house on Filbert Street in San Francisco during his early years.
What jobs did Jack Vance hold before becoming a professional writer?
Jack Vance took jobs as a bellhop, worked in a cannery, and labored on a gold dredge to support himself after leaving junior college. He described this period as a time where he developed from an impractical intellectual into a reckless young man competent at many skills.
Which fantasy series did Jack Vance create featuring Cugel the Clever?
The Dying Earth series originally bore the title Mazirian the Magician and featured Cugel the Clever as a ne'er-do-well scoundrel. Books were written in 1963, 1978, and 1981 to expand upon this world while Rhialto the Marvellous also appeared as a magician within these pages.
How many Hugo Awards did Jack Vance win and for which works?
He received Hugo Awards in 1963 for The Dragon Masters and again in 1967 for The Last Castle. A third Hugo Award arrived in 2010 for his memoir titled This Is Me Jack Vance!
When was the Integral Edition of all Jack Vance's works created and how many volumes does it contain?
Volunteers created this project from 1999 to 2006 working via the internet under the author's own aegis. An Integral Edition of all Vance's works appeared in a limited edition of forty-four hardback volumes with a special forty-fifth volume containing three novels written under the name Ellery Queen.