Frank Herbert

Biography

Frank Herbert was born on October 8th, 1920 in Tacoma in the State from Washington, of Frank Herbert and Eileen McCarthy Herbert. It very early decides to become writer. It finishes its secondary studies in 1938, and in 1939, it lies in connection with its age in order to obtain its first employment for the newspaper Glendale Star .

During the Second world war, its career of writer is temporarily suspended when it serves the Seabee S of US Navy for six months as a photographer, before being stopped for medical reasons. In 1941, he marries Flora Parkinson in San Pedro in California. He divorces in 1945 after the birth his daughter, Penny.

After the war, it is registered with the Université of Washington, where it meets Beverly Ann Stuart in 1946 at the time of a course of creative writing. They are the only ones to succeed in selling and making publish part of their work: Herbert manages to sell two stories of adventure with a pulp magazine and Stuart one to the magazine Modern Romance . He does not obtain however an university degree, because he wants to study only the subjects which interest it. After the university, it goes back to journalism while working for the Seattle Star , the Oregon Statesman and the San Francisco Examiner' S California Living Magazine . Frank and Beverly marry in June 1946 in Seattle. They will have two wire, Brian, born in 1947, and Calvin, born in 1951.

In 1947, Herbert sells its first account of science fiction, Looking for Something , with the magazine Startling Stories . In the years which followed, it will publish nearly twenty news of this kind. But its career of writer begins with the publication from the Dragon under the sea ( The Dragon in the Sea ) in 1955, where it uses the environment of a submarine of the 21e century to explore the wheels of the madness. The book predicts world wars around consumption and production of oil. It is very well accommodated by criticism but does not become therefore a business success.

In 1959, whereas it is supposed to write an article on the dunes of Florence, in Oregon, Herbert finds himself captivated by the subject and accumulates much more information than one should not any to him for a simple article. The article in question will never be written, but it marks the beginning of the writing of the saga of Dune . In the years 1960, Herbert can devote himself entirely to his career of writer thanks to his wife who then resumes full-time work like advertizing executive.

After six years of writing and research, Herbert completes finally Dune . The novel, much longer than the stories of science fiction of the time, is initially published in the review Analog in two pieces, in 1963 and 1965, but then rejected by nearly twenty editors before being finally accepted by Chilton, a small house of edition of Philadelphia, which offers to Herbert an advance of 7500 dollars. Dune receives soon the favors of criticism, then gains the Prix Nebula in 1965 and the Prix Hugo in 1966. It is about the first science-fiction novel granting a great place to the ecology, but which also utilizes of the topics such as the policy, the religion, or the survival of the mankind. Herbert also uses from the multiple points of view using his various characters, an approach which one finds thereafter in all his works.

The book does not become however immediately a best-seller. Until 1968, Herbert in the car much more than the majority of the science-fiction novels of the time (20 000 $), but not sufficiently to allow him to become writer full-time. The publication of Dune opens nevertheless new doors to him. From 1969 to 1972, he works as writer for the section education of the newspaper Seattle Post-Intelligencer and as university lecturer in general and interdisciplinary studies at the University of Washington. In 1972, he works in Vietnam and Pakistan as consultant in ecology. In 1973, he is director-photographer for the show televised The Tillers .

In 1972, it ceases writing for the newspapers and becomes a writer full-time. During the years 1970 and 1980, it benefits from a considerable business success as an author. It shares its time between its two residences, one in Hawaii and the other in the state of Washington, and written many books where it proposes its ecological and philosophical ideas. Its house of the state of Washington is a “ecological project of demonstration”. It continues the “cycle” of Dune which will comprise with final six volumes. It will also publish other books such as And the man created a god , the Cycle of the Saboteurs or the Cycle of the Program Conscience in co-operation with Bill Ransom.

Unfortunately, in 1974, his wife, victim of a cancer, undergo an operation which enables him to survive but affects its health. She dies in 1984, the year when the book is published the Heretics of Dune . 1984 were one year tumultuous for Herbert who also assists with the adaptation to the cinema of '' Dune '' by David Lynch. In spite of strong waitings, a production with large budget and a casting including several stars Hollywood, the film is as a whole badly accommodated by criticism in the United States. On the other hand, he is success in Europe and in Japan.

After the death of his wife, Herbert marries Theresa Schackleford in 1985, and publishes the House of the Mothers , the last volume of the cycle of Dune which he will write, although a continuation was envisaged. The postface contains a homage to his late wife Beverly. February 11th, 1986, he dies of a pulmonary embolism which has occurred following an operation of a cancer of the pancreas, at the 65 years age.

Topics and ideas

While exploring in its science-fiction novels of the topics varied such as philosophy, the religion, psychology, the policy or ecology, Herbert led good number of its readers to be interested themselves in these fields. This passion appeared such at certain readers that the latter started to reading all that Herbert had been able to write, regarding it as a reference on the subjects tackled in its works. But when one asked him on several occasions if it were creating a new worship, Herbert declared clearly that it was firmly opposite there. He also carefully took care not to give precise answers to the questions which he raised in his novels.

Among the important ideas evoked in his books, one can quote:

dangers related to the Leadership, in particular the tendency of the men to follow blindly and with constraint charismatic leaders (Muad' dib in Dune ), but also dangers of the bureaucracy and the government.
importance to think on the long run and with a Systemic approach (the topic of the ecology in Dune ).
close relationships between the religion, the policy and the capacity in general (the Gesserit Bucket in Dune ).
extent of the human resources, approached under many aspects: capacity of the man to be adapted to his living conditions to survive (Fremens of Dune , Dosadi in the novel of the same name), the specialization of the body and the human spirit (techniques of the Gesserit Bucket in Dune ) or possibilities brought by the use of chemical substances (the spice in Dune ).
“mental health” and the madness; Frank Hervert was interested in work of Thomas Szasz and in the Antipsychiatrie, and often questions the concept of madness.
the way in which the language influences the thought.
conscience and the artificial intelligence ( Destination: vacuum ).
dangers of prophecy ( Dune (as a series)).

Others

For much, Beverly is the inspirer of the admirable character of lady Jessica (in the same manner that Edith Tolkien had inspired with her husband that of Luthien Tinuviel in Silmarillion ).

His/her oldest son, Brian, prolonged this saga in collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson in the two trilogies: Before Dune and Dune, the genesis . They also have just published two books (called Dune 7 ) which make following the House of the Mothers composed starting from outlines left by Frank Herbert: Hunters off Dune and Sandworms off Dune (appeared year August 2007; not translated).

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