Damon Knight

Damon Knight
Born	(1922-09-19)September 19, 1922
Died	April 15, 2002(2002-04-15) (aged 79)
Occupation	Author, editor, critic
Nationality	United States
Genres	Science fiction

Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.^[1]

Biography

Damon Knight was born in Baker, Oregon in 1922, and grew up in Hood River, Oregon. He entered science-fiction fandom at the age of eleven and published two issues of a fanzine entitled "Snide." ^[2]

Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories.^[3] His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941;^[4] an editorial error made this story's ending incomprehensible,^[5] although the story was later reprinted elsewhere as Knight originally wrote it.^{[citation needed]} He was a Hugo Award winner,^[6][7] founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA),^[8] cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation,^[9] cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop,^[10] and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop.^[11] Until his death, Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm, also a writer of science fiction and of fantasy, contemporary mimetic and crime fiction.^[12]

At the time of his first story, he was living in New York, and was a member of the Futurians.^[4] One of his short stories describes paranormal disruption of a science fiction fan group, and contains cameo appearances of various Futurians and others under thinly-disguised names: For instance, non-Futurian sf writer H. Beam Piper is identified as "H. Dreyne Fifer".

In a series of reviews for various magazines, he became famous as a science fiction critic, a career which began when he wrote in 1945 that A. E. van Vogt "is not a giant as often maintained. He's only a pygmy who has learned to operate an overgrown typewriter."^[2] After nine years, he ceased reviewing when a magazine refused to publish one review exactly as he wrote it. These reviews were later collected in In Search of Wonder.^[4]

The SFWA's Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement was renamed in his honor. Formerly known as the Grand Master Award, Knight received that honor in 1994.^[4]

To the general public, he is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone.^[13] He is also known for the term "idiot plot," a story that only functions because almost everyone in it is an idiot; the term was probably invented by James Blish, but became well-known through Knight's frequent use of it in his reviews.^[14]

Partial bibliography

Novels

• Hell's Pavement (1955)
• A for Anything (1961) (original version titled The People Maker, 1959)
• Masters of Evolution (1959)
• The Sun Saboteurs (1961)
• Beyond the Barrier (1964)
• Mind Switch (1965)
• The Rithian Terror (1965)
• The Earth Quarter (1970)
• World without Children (1970)
• The World and Thorinn (1980)
• The Man in the Tree (1984)
• CV (1985)
• The Observers (1988)
• Double Meaning (1991)
• God's Nose (1991)
• Why Do Birds (1992)
• Humpty Dumpty: An Oval (1996)

Short stories and other writings

• "Not with a Bang" (1949)
• "To Serve Man" (1950)
• "Ask Me Anything" (1951)
• "Cabin Boy" (1951)
• "The Analogues" (1952)
• "Beachcomber" (1952)
• "Ticket to Anywhere" (1952)
• "Anachron" (1953)
• "Babel II" (1953)
• "Four in One" (1953)
• "Special Delivery" (1953)
• "Natural State" (1954)
• "Rule Golden" (1954)
• "The Country of the Kind" (1955)
• "Dulcie and Decorum" (1955)
• "You're Another" (1955)
• "Extempore" (1956)
• "The Last Word" (1956)
• "Stranger Station" (1956)
• "Dio" (1957)
• "The Dying Man" (1957)
• "The Enemy" (1958)
• "An Eye for a What?" (1957)
• "Be My Guest" (1958)
• "Eripmav" (1958)
• "Idiot Stick" (1958)
• "Thing of Beauty" (1958)
• "The Handler" (1960)
• "Time Enough" (1960)
• A Century of Science Fiction (1962) (editor)
• The Big Pat Boom (1963)
• God's Nose (1964)
• Maid to Measure (1964)
• "Shall the Dust Praise Thee?" (1967)
• Masks (1968)
• I See You (1976)
• Forever (1981)
• O (1983)
• Strangers on Paradise (1986)
• Not a Creature (1993)
• Fortyday (1994)
• Life Edit (1996)
• Double Meaning
• In the Beginning

Literary criticism and analysis

• In Search of Wonder (1956) (collected reviews and critical pieces)
• Creating Short Fiction (1981) (advice on writing short stories)
• Turning Points (editor/contributor: critical anthology)
• Orbit (editor)
• The Futurians (1977, memoir/history)

Short story collections

• Far Out (1961) (contains "To Serve Man")
• In Deep (1963) (contains "The Country of the Kind")
• Off Center (1965) (contains "Be My Guest")
• Turning On (1966)

Notes

Bibliography

• Aldiss, Brian W.; Harrison, Harry (1976). Hell's Cartographers. London: Futura. ISBN 0-86007-907-4
• Gunn, James E.; Candelaria, Matthew (2005). Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4902-X
• Pohl, Frederik (2002). The SFWA Grand Masters: Volume 3. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-86876-6
• Stanyard, Stewart T. (2006). Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone: A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series. Chicago: ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-744-4

External links

• Damon Knight biography at the Science Fiction Hall of Fame
• SFWA Obituary for Damon Knight
• Damon Knight at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Damon Knight Papers at Syracuse University

Persondata
Name	Knight, Damon Francis
Alternative names
Short description	American author, editor and critic
Date of birth	1922-09-19
Place of birth	Baker, Oregon, United States
Date of death	2002-04-15
Place of death	Eugene, Oregon, United States