Leigh Brackett

• 1. Los Angeles Tomboy

  ›

  Leigh Douglass Brackett was born on the 7th of December 1915 in Los Angeles, California. Her father died when she was very young and her mother did not remarry. She grew up as a tomboy who was tall and athletic for her age. This physical nature shaped her early years before she ever picked up a pen to write fiction. She attended a private girls' school in Santa Monica where theater became her first creative outlet. It was within those school halls that she began writing stories alongside acting in plays. The city of Los Angeles provided the backdrop for this formative period of her life.

  1

• 2. Martian Quest And Early Fame

  ›

  Her professional writing career began in her mid-twenties with the story Martian Quest. That tale appeared in the February 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. Her earliest years from 1940 to 1942 proved to be her most productive period as an author. Some of these early works carried social themes such as The Citadel of Lost Ships which examined alien cultures under Earth's expanding trade empire. She was an active member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society during this time. She contributed to the second issue of Pogo's STF-ETTE which was likely the first all-female science fiction fanzine. Shadow Over Mars marked the beginning of a new style influenced by film noir characterization. This novella won a Retro Hugo Award for best novel in 2020 despite its rough-edged origins.

  83

• 3. Hollywood Crime And Westerns

  ›

  Director Howard Hawks read her hard-boiled mystery novel No Good from a Corpse published in 1944. He had his secretary call in what he called this guy Brackett to help William Faulkner write the script for The Big Sleep. That film released in 1946 and starred Humphrey Bogart alongside writers Jules Furthman and Faulkner. After getting married she took a break from screenwriting before returning in the mid-1950s. Howard Hawks hired her again to write or co-write several John Wayne pictures including Rio Bravo released in 1959. She also adapted Raymond Chandler's novel The Long Goodbye for the screen years later. Her background with The Big Sleep helped her navigate the complex dialogue required for these crime films. Hatari! followed in 1962 while El Dorado arrived in 1966. Rio Lobo completed their collaboration in 1970.

  62

• 4. The Empire Strikes Back Draft

  ›

  George Lucas asked Brackett to write the screenplay based on his story outline for The Empire Strikes Back. She delivered a finished first draft titled Star Wars sequel shortly before her death from cancer on the 18th of March 1978. Lucas rejected her version and wrote two drafts of a new screenplay himself. Lawrence Kasdan then reworked some dialogue after receiving the script for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Brackett was credited in tribute despite not being involved in the final film production. For over 30 years this screenplay could be read only at the Jack Williamson Special Collections library in Portales New Mexico. It was officially published in February 2016 revealing details like a love triangle between Luke Leia and Han Solo. Yoda was named Minch in her draft while Luke had a hidden sister named Nellith. Han Solo left to search for his uncle Ovan Marek who was described as the most powerful man in the universe after Emperor Palpatine.

  141511

• 5. Retro Honors And Critical Reevaluation

  ›

  In 1956 her book The Long Tomorrow made her the first woman ever shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Along with C. L. Moore she became one of the first two women nominated for a Hugo Award. In 2020 she posthumously won a Retro Hugo for her novel Shadow Over Mars originally published as Shadow Over Mars in Startling Stories Fall 1944. The film The Empire Strikes Back which used elements from her work won the Hugo Award in 1981. Critics have noted that it is fashionable to disparage her contributions yet basic story beats remain in the final movie. Her Solar System stories featured richly detailed fictional versions of Mars and Venus popular from the 1930s to the 1950s. When Mariner missions indicated no life on Mars she never returned to those settings again. She invented a new Solar System outside our own when writing planetary romance in the 1970s.

  137