John Boyd is the primary pen-name of Boyd Bradfield Upchurch (born October 3, 1919, Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

) a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 author. His best known work is his first science fiction novel, The Last Starship from Earth

The Last Starship from Earth

The Last Starship from Earth is a 1968 science fiction novel by John Boyd, and is his best known novel.- Plot summary :It is set in a dystopian society in the very near future. Although it is not obvious at first, this is also an alternate history story.The central character is Haldane IV, a...

, published in 1968. Boyd has written eleven science fiction novels, five novels and one biography. His earlier science fiction novels were initially published by US publisher Weybright & Talley, with subsequent US and UK reprints from mainstream SF publishers.

Novels

• The Slave Stealer (as Boyd Upchurch) (1968, Weybright & Talley) historical novel set during the US slavery period.
• The Last Starship from Earth
  The Last Starship from Earth
  The Last Starship from Earth is a 1968 science fiction novel by John Boyd, and is his best known novel.- Plot summary :It is set in a dystopian society in the very near future. Although it is not obvious at first, this is also an alternate history story.The central character is Haldane IV, a...
  
  (1968, Weybright & Talley)
• The Pollinators of Eden (1969, Weybright & Talley. 1971, France: as La Planète Fleur, published by Denoël, series: Présence du Futur #140)
• The Rakehells of Heaven (1969) Weybright & Talley, Gollancz, Bantam, Pan, Penguin [Edition adds Preface]
• Sex and the High Command (1970) Weybright & Talley, Bantam
• The Organ Bank Farm (1970) Weybright & Talley, Bantam
• The Doomsday Gene (1972) Weybright & Talley
• The I Q Merchant (1972) Weybright & Talley
• The Gorgon Festival (1972) Weybright & Talley, Bantam
• Andromeda Gun (1974) Berkley Putnam, Berkley
• Barnard's Planet (1975) Berkley Putnam, Berkley
• Scarborough Hall (1976) [as Boyd Upchurch] Berkley. ghost story involving the slavery period.
• The Girl with the Jade Green Eyes (1978) Viking, Penguin

Short Fiction

• "The Girl and the Dolphin" (Galaxy
  Galaxy Science Fiction
  Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
  
  March-April 1973)

Non-fiction books

• Behind Every Bush: Treason or Patriotirms? (1979) [as Boyd Upchurch, with Senator Richard H Ichord] a look at the House Committee on Un-American Activities, of which Ichord served as chair (1969-1975) after its change of name to the House Internal Security Committee

Non-fiction

• "What It Means To Write Science Fiction" (in Science Fiction: The Academic Awakening (ed. Willis E. McNelly) (College English Association, 1974)

Definition of science fiction

Boyd has written on science fiction, giving a definition of the genre as "... storytelling, usually imaginative as distinct from realistic fiction, which poses the effects of current or extrapolated scientific discoveries, or a single discovery, on the behavior of individuals [or] society."

External links