F. M. Busby

Francis Marion Busby (March 11, 1921 - February 17, 2005) was a science fiction writer and science fiction fan. During 1960 he was a co-winner of the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine.

Biography

Francis Marion "Buz" Busby was born in the USA in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of Francis Marion Busby and Clara Nye Busby. The family settled in Colfax, in the state of Washington during 1931 and Busby attended high school there. He subsequently attended Washington State College until he joined the National Guard. He was subsequently discharged and returned to college. He did not remain long, however, and enlisted in the US Army on July 23, 1943 at Spokane, Washington.

Busby served the war as part of the Alaska Communication System, assigned to the island of Amchitka. At the end of World War II he was discharged from the army and returned to college to graduate as an engineer. He subsequently returned to the Alaska Communication System to work in a civilian role based in Seattle, Washington.

During 1954 Busby married Elinor Doub. He had one daughter, Michele. Together with his wife and others he published a fan magazine named Cry of the Nameless which won a Hugo award during 1960.

Busby continued to work for the Alaska Communication System until 1971, when the organization was sold to private industry and renamed RCA Alascom and he took early retirement from the company.

From 1974 to 1976 Busby was Vice President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. At the age of fifty he became a freelance science-fiction author. He wrote nineteen published novels and numerous short stories between 1973 and 1996.

Robert A. Heinlein in part dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Busby,[1] and in part dedicated his 1982 novel Friday to Elinor.[2]

Busby ceased writing fiction some time after 1996, claiming in an email:[3]

“ No, I haven't been writing fiction for some time. Many if not most of us "midlist" writers have been frozen out like a third party on an Eskimo honeymoon. The IRS started it by getting the Thor Power Tools decision stretched to cover an inventory tax on books in publishers' warehouses (so they don't keep 'em in print no more), and the bookchains wrapped it up by setting one book's GROSS order on that writer's previous book's NET sales. 4-5 books under those rules, and you're road kill; a publisher can't be expected to buy a book the chains won't pay out on. ”

How real the influence of the Thor Power Tools decision was on Busby's writing career is uncertain, considering a great many of his novels were written and published after it.

During November 2004 Busby was diagnosed with severe intestinal problems. He went into the Swedish Medical Center/Ballard Campus for surgery and suffered complications. He underwent further surgery before being moved to Health and Rehabilitation of Seattle, where he died on Thursday afternoon, February 17, 2005.

Themes, styles and influences

In the Rissa Kerguelen and Bran Tregare series of Hulzein family novels, Busby's theme was one of human brutality on an institutional scale and how it inevitably affects the very people who will eventually fight against it. Additional themes included the worst extremes of corporate power, the oppression of minorities (particularly homosexuals), human rights in totalitarian regimes and the dehumanization of those who serve totalitarian states. Busby was also known for his strong female characters, so much so that many readers assumed that his initials indicated that he was a woman himself.

Although Busby's setting for the series initially lacked faster than light travel and substantial contact with aliens, the series clearly qualifies as "space opera" by the treatment of the characters involved - especially after the end of first trilogy, where both FTL and intelligent aliens were introduced.

Busby himself was a longtime science fiction fan and may have been influenced by many writers and artists, though it is difficult to identify any one influence in his writing. The Hulzein series of novels is essentially the story of an evil empire defied by a small number of heroic but all too human characters.

Bibliography

Series

Demu

Rissa Kerguelen and Bran Tregare

Rissa Kerguelen
Hulzein

Slow Freight

Non-series novels

Short-Story Collection

"A Gun for Grandfather"
"Of Mice and Otis"
"The Puiss of Krrlik"
"The Absence of Tom Leone"
"Proof"
"The Real World"
"Tell Me All About Yourself" (1973)
"Once Upon a Unicorn" (1973)
"Road Map"
"If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy" (1974)
"Three Tinks on the House"
"The Learning of Eeshta" - Part of the Demu series, and also included in The Demu Trilogy (1980)
"I'm Going to Get You" (1974)
"2000½: A Spaced Oddity"
"Time of Need"
"Retroflex"
"Misconception"
"The Signing of Tulip"
"Advantage"
"Getting Home"

Other short stories

Busby reportedly wrote over 40 short stories, thus leaving over 20 still uncollected, including:

Anthologies containing stories by Busby

His work appeared in the following anthologies:

References

  1. ↑ Heinlein, Robert A (1986). The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. New England Library. ISBN 0-450-39315-1.
  2. ↑ Heinlein, Robert A (1984). Friday. New England Library. ISBN 0-450-05549-3.
  3. ↑ Willick, George C. "F. M. Busby". Spacelight. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved 2007-10-21.

External links

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