John Kilian Houston Brunner was born in Oxfordshire, England on September 24th 1934, the great-grandson of the founder of the large chemical company Brunner-Mond Ltd. He started writing SF at an early age, receiving a rejection from British Astounding aged thirteen, as the publication did not buy original material. Brunner's first paperback novel, Galactic Storm , written under the pseudonym Gill Hunt, was published when he was seventeen although later in his life he would not acknowledge it. He refused two offers of scholarships at Oxford and spent two unhappy years in the RAF before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1958.
During the next six years Ace published twenty seven novels by John Brunner. These novels were primarily hard-SF and space operas. He was involved with the SF scene, regularly attending meetings of the London SF Circle at the Globe pub and exchanging ideas with Arthur C Clarke, William F Temple, Walter Gillings, E C Tubb and various American writers. Brunner and his first wife Marjorie became involved in the British nuclear disarmament movement and Brunner travelled extensively with CND caravans. It was whilst employed as a CND observer at the Moscow Peace Congress that he met the Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. His later protests at the USSR's explosion of the 100 mega-ton bomb saw an end to invitations to the Russian Embassy.
Brunner and Marjorie also shared an active interest in the Folk music scene. In the late 1950's Brunner was London correspondent for a New York based folk music fanzine and briefly ran a science fiction and folk music fanzine himself. Later in life, Marjorie founded music festivals in the South West of England and after her death Brunner continued to sponsor them in her memory. Throughout his life Brunner composed folk music, often combining science fiction themes and folk tunes together. One of these compositions was the CND marching song, The H-Bomb's Thunder which was sung on the first Aldermaston march in 1959.
Brunner's output of written work was prolific. Amongst other written work, he produced a large amount of proposals for TV and film projects, with some early successes. In 1967 Brunner adapted a novel of Murray Leinster into the script for the film The Terrornauts and in 1969 Brunner contributed an episode to the critically acclaimed BBC2 television series Out of the Unknown , which was based on his story The Last Lonely Man. He also advised the plot of the now cult sci-fi musical film Toomorrow in 1969. However, despite working on film and TV projects with the producers Sandy Lieberson and Roberta Leigh, these sucesses were not continued.
Brunner's masterpiece Stand on Zanzibar , was published in 1968 and won a Hugo award in the same year. In 1970 it was awarded the British Science Fiction Award followed by the Prix Apollo for the French translation in 1973. Stand on Zanzibar signified a stylistic change for Brunner, shown by his use of dystopian themes and criticisms of society, continued in The Sheep Look Up and Jagged Orbit . He also created the character of Max Curfew and devoted a series of novels to him. Brunner spent 1970 publishing non-SF novels and poetry and ended the year by becoming one of the vice-presidents of the newly-founded Science Fiction Foundation. The Foundation was housed in the Department of Applied Philosophy in the North East London Polytechnic, with Arthur C Clarke as its patron and James Blish and Kenneth Bulmer ranking alongside Brunner. He wrote the first article to appear in Foundation, the Science Fiction Foundation's journal.
Brunner's run of success continued. The Jagged Orbit was nominated for the Nebula Award in the US and won the British Science Fiction Award in 1971. In 1972 he became Chairman of the British Science Fiction Association and also writer in residence at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Another Nebula nomination followed in 1973 for The Sheep Look Up .
Financial troubles in the first half of the 1970's saw Brunner return to writing space operas, but they were not in the same vein as the earlier Ace publications. The Great Steamboat Race , a non SF novel intended to revive his career did not meet with the critical acclaim expected.
The last twenty or so years of Brunner's life were plagued by ill health and disputes with publishers. Despite this, his creative output remained as prolific as before. Brunner has often been described as a difficult man; this trait can be attributed to his perfectionism and passion for the subjects he wrote about and causes he believed in. Although he did not enjoy the same critical success in the latter part of his career as he had with Zanzibar , he continued to write S.F. and non-S.F. novels and poetry and contribute to magazines and newspapers.
John Brunner suffered a stroke in a Glasgow hotel whilst attending the 53rd World Science Fiction Convention. He died the following day, 25th August 1995. He is survived by his second wife Li Yi Tan Brunner, whom he married in 1991.
Both Brunner's Science Fiction and non-Science Fiction works are represented in the collection. The fiction element consists of four hundred and seven typescripts of John Brunner's works. Ninety Seven of these are novels, novellas and collections of short stories (83 published, 14 unpublished). Thirty five are outlines/synopses for novels. The remaining 261 are short stories (153 of which are published, 108 unpublished). In addition to these are numerous collections of poetry and songs (some of which appear to have been published in a regular magazine column); TV, Film and radio work (some of which are adaptations of his own short stories); translations by John Brunner and 14 of Brunner's science fiction awards. The non-fiction element consists of two hundred and sixty-seven typescripts, thirty seven of these are Brunner's speeches and non-fiction radio and TV broadcasts, and two hundred and thirty typescripts are articles, reviews and fanzines (including fanzine articles and some work connected to writing workshops that Brunner led). In addition there are ninety-four crosswords, various cyphers and quiz questions and notes and proposals compiled by Brunner for anthologies of other authors' work. Brunner also kept many newspaper articles, reviews and credentials mentioning his work; one hundred and forty seven of these are in the collection alongside forty-four journals also containing his work (Links are provided within the hand-list when there is both a publication and a typescript of the same work in the collection). There is also a small collection of business papers, made up of 14 items concerning publication details of some of Brunner's novels and letters relating to the folk music societies that he was involved with.
The collection is arranged between 4 main elements:
Many items are not dated and are therefore listed in alphabetical order. Where dates are apparent, items are listed in date order.
The collection was left to the Science Fiction Foundation by John Brunner in his will, together with a collection of books now incorporated with the Science Fiction Foundation collection.
Previously in the custody of Li Yi Tan Brunner.
The material has been appraised
There are no anticipated accruals
Originally listed by Larysa Mitchell using Adept Edit in 2000 . This list was later revised and extra material added by Heather Boyns 2002-2003 using X-Emacs Open Source Text Editor . Further extra material was added and revisions carried out by Stephanie Nield 2003-2004.
Access is open to bona fide researchers. Access to some items is restricted.
Reproduction and licensing rules available on request.
Obituaries from The Guardian and The Independent are located in the folders of news material, kept in the Science Fiction stacks.
Foundation: the international review of science fiction , number 69, Spring 1997, is dedicated to the memory of John Brunner.
George Benson Jr, John Brunner: a bibliography, Alberquerque, New Mexico, 1985, PX 400.A1.B78.B46
E F Bleiler, ed., Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day , Charles Scribner's Sons, 1982, pp.297-304, ISBN 0684167409, PX 332.B63.S3.1982 O/S
John Clute and Peter Nicholls, eds., The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction , Orbit, 1993, pp.165-168, ISBN 1857231244, PX 1.C64.1993
Joseph DeBolt, ed., The Happening Worlds of John Brunner: Critical Explorations in Science Fiction , Kennikat Press, 1975, ISBN 080469124X, PX 400.A4.B78.D42 1975.
Noelle Watson and Paul E. Schellinger, eds., Twentieth Century Science Fiction Writers, Third Edition, St James Press, 1991, pp.8588, ISBN 1558621113, PX 1.T83.1991
This is a list of reference works related to John Brunner. The collection of Brunner's work housed in the Foundation library is not listed here.
Expanded from This Rough Magic
Cover art by Jeff Jones
Second (shorter) copy has minor corrections and letter from publisher stating this was "the manuscript used in the publication of your book"
Deposited with The Earth is but a Star
Deposited with Threshold of Eternity
Published as a novella, The Hundredth Millennium
Revised as Catch a Falling Star
Some alterations made to text
Deposited with Polymath
Rewritten as Give Warning to the World
Deposited with A Planet of Your Own
Deposited with The Stardroppers
Brunner's original title for the novel was Death's Head
Some minor alterations made to the text
Deposited with Telepathist
Expanded and rewritten as Into the Slave Nebula
Included with longer script is a note regarding alteration of title
Deposited with The Productions of Time
Title on cover of typescript is The Gods of Ancient Earth
Deposited with Malcolm and Sarah
Written under pseudonym of Keith Woodcott
Deposited with the Usurpers of Carrig
Revised as The Avengers of Carrig
Second novel in Zarathustra Refugee Planet series
Some alterations made to text
Deposited with The Stone That Never Came Down
Some alterations made to text
Deposited with Quicksand
With revisions
Deposited with Incest Times Four
Deposited with To Conquer Chaos
Revised as The Stardroppers
Deposited with The Crutch of Memory
Rewritten as Polymath
Rewritten as More Things in Heaven
Typescript originally labelled as Double Negative by John Brunner This has been crossed out and replaced with Astronauts Must Not Land by Keith Woodcott
Keith Woodcott has also been crossed out
Published in New Worlds Science Fiction September, October 1962 as Crack of Doom
Typescript originally entitled Crack of Doom
Written under the pseudonym Keith Woodcott
Deposited with The Evil That Men Do
Alternative title on typescript is Duel over Argus
Rewritten as Manshape
Some alterations made to the text
Printing history affixed to longer copy
Deposited with Listen! The Stars!
Some minor corrections made to longer manuscript
Deposited with Castaway's World
Some alterations made to text
Publication layout drafts of the cover and introductory pages (not of the novel itself)
Deposited with No Other Gods But Me
Third novel in Zarathustra Refugee Planet series
Longer copy has an explanatory note about the printing history of this novel
Second novel in the Galactic Empire series
Some alterations to text
Typescript is marked up for publication
Nominated for the Hugo Award 1966
Some minor alterations to longer manuscript and two pages of page numbers with alterations on
Some alterations made to the texts
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