Ray Nelson
Encyclopedia
Radell Faraday "Ray" Nelson (born 3 October 1931) is an American
science fiction
author and cartoonist
most famous for his 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning", which was later used by John Carpenter
as the basis for his 1988 film
They Live
.
, the son of Walter Hughes Nelson and Marie Reed. He became an active member of science fiction fandom
while still a teenager at Cadillac High School
in Cadillac, Michigan
. After graduation, he attended the University of Chicago
(studying theology
), then spent four years studying in Paris
, where he met Jean Paul Sartre, Boris Vian
and Simone de Beauvoir
, as well as Allen Ginsberg
, Gregory Corso
, William Burroughs and other Beat Generation
icons. In Paris, he worked with Michael Moorcock
smuggling then-banned Henry Miller
books out of France. While there, he also met Norwegian Kirsten Enge, who became his second wife October 4, 1957. Their only child, Walter Trygve Nelson, was born September 21, 1958 in Paris. He had previously been married to fellow fan Perdita Lilly, subject of his first book, the 23-page poetry collection Perdita: Songs of Love, Sex and Self Pity, who would later marry John Boardman
.
including "Turn Off the Sky" and "Nightfall on the Dead Sea".
Nelson collaborated with Philip K. Dick
on the 1967
alien invasion
novel
The Ganymede Takeover
. At the 1982 Philip K. Dick Awards, Nelson's novel The Prometheus Man
gained a Special Citation (runner-up).
His 1975
book Blake's Progress, in which the poet William Blake
is a time traveler, has been the author's greatest critical success. Richard A. Lupoff
described it as "a revelation," saying "Nelson's style is sharply focused and carefully colored . . . His plotting is exactly as complex as it ought to be [and] his characters are nicely drawn." It was rewritten and republished as 1985
's Timequest
.
Nelson was friends with Philip K. Dick
starting in childhood, and in a documentary about Dick, Nelson says that the only times that Dick tried LSD were the two times that he gave it to him. That biographical documentary about Dick, in which Nelson is a featured interviewee, is The Penultimate Truth About Philip K. Dick produced in 2007.
In the early 1970's. Nelson ran a writers' workshop at a Unitarian church in the San Francisco area. One of his students was Anne Rice
.
Ray Nelson has professed that his greatest claim to fame is to be the creator of the iconic propeller beanie
as symblematic of science fiction fandom
while a 10th-grader at Cadillac High. He also claims to have invented the "Beany" character in a 1948 contest for what would become Time for Beany
, while visiting relatives in California. ”I think it's probably my best bet of being remembered,“ Nelson says. ”I've never been on the New York Times best seller list.“
People of the United States
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
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 and cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
most famous for his 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning", which was later used by John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
as the basis for his 1988 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
They Live
They Live
They Live is a 1988 science fiction/horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Frank Armitage ....
.
Personal life
Nelson was born October 3, 1931 in Schenectady, New YorkSchenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
, the son of Walter Hughes Nelson and Marie Reed. He became an active member of science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
while still a teenager at Cadillac High School
Cadillac High School
Cadillac High School is a high school located in Cadillac, Michigan. The athletic teams are known as the Vikings. School colors are blue and gold. As of 2005, the school served 840 students, and had employed 37 teachers...
in Cadillac, Michigan
Cadillac, Michigan
Cadillac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is the county seat of Wexford County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 10,000. The city is situated at the junction of US 131, M-55 and M-115...
. After graduation, he attended the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
(studying theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
), then spent four years studying in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he met Jean Paul Sartre, Boris Vian
Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
and Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
, as well as Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Gregory Corso
Gregory Corso
Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
, William Burroughs and other Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
icons. In Paris, he worked with Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
smuggling then-banned Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
books out of France. While there, he also met Norwegian Kirsten Enge, who became his second wife October 4, 1957. Their only child, Walter Trygve Nelson, was born September 21, 1958 in Paris. He had previously been married to fellow fan Perdita Lilly, subject of his first book, the 23-page poetry collection Perdita: Songs of Love, Sex and Self Pity, who would later marry John Boardman
John Boardman
Jack Melton Boardman, commonly known as John Boardman, is an American former professor of physics at Brooklyn College.- Academic career :...
.
Career
Nelson had begun his writing (and creating cartoons) for science fiction fanzines. In addition to "Eight O'Clock in the Morning", Nelson wrote many other professionally-published short storiesShort Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
including "Turn Off the Sky" and "Nightfall on the Dead Sea".
Nelson collaborated with Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
on the 1967
1967 in literature
The year 1967 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Influential science fiction anthology Dangerous Visions published.*Cecil Day-Lewis is selected as the new Poet Laureate of the UK.-New books:...
alien invasion
Alien invasion
The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
The Ganymede Takeover
The Ganymede Takeover
The Ganymede Takeover is a 1967 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick and Ray Nelson. It is an alien invasion novel, and similar to Dick's earlier solo novel The Game-Players of Titan...
. At the 1982 Philip K. Dick Awards, Nelson's novel The Prometheus Man
The Prometheus Man
The Prometheus Man is a 1982 novel written by Ray Faraday Nelson. In this novel, a monopolistic insurance company takes control of planet Earth from a huge balloon drifting around the world; however, a cunning woman ruins the plans of this insurance company.The Prometheus Man was awarded a Special...
gained a Special Citation (runner-up).
His 1975
1975 in literature
The year 1975 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* August 12 — with the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death having expired, sealed packets containing 32 of the author's notebooks were opened in Zurich, Switzerland.* Writing under the...
book Blake's Progress, in which the poet William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
is a time traveler, has been the author's greatest critical success. Richard A. Lupoff
Richard A. Lupoff
Richard Allen Lupoff is an American science fiction and mystery author, who has also written humor, satire, non-fiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he has also edited science-fantasy anthologies. He is an expert on the writing of Edgar Rice...
described it as "a revelation," saying "Nelson's style is sharply focused and carefully colored . . . His plotting is exactly as complex as it ought to be [and] his characters are nicely drawn." It was rewritten and republished as 1985
1985 in literature
The year 1985 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire*Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale*Jean M. Auel - The Mammoth Hunters*Iain Banks - Walking on Glass...
's Timequest
Timequest
Timequest is an interactive fiction game released by Legend Entertainment, and written by Bob Bates.-Plot:In the year 2090 AD, the use of time machines is regulated by officers of the Temporal Corps...
.
Nelson was friends with Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
starting in childhood, and in a documentary about Dick, Nelson says that the only times that Dick tried LSD were the two times that he gave it to him. That biographical documentary about Dick, in which Nelson is a featured interviewee, is The Penultimate Truth About Philip K. Dick produced in 2007.
In the early 1970's. Nelson ran a writers' workshop at a Unitarian church in the San Francisco area. One of his students was Anne Rice
Anne Rice
Anne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...
.
Propeller beanie
Beanie
A beanie is a head-hugging brimless cap with or without a visor that was once popular among school boys.-Description:In the United States of America, beanies are made by triangular sections of cloth joined by a button at the crown and seamed together around the sides.They can also be made from...
as symblematic of science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
while a 10th-grader at Cadillac High. He also claims to have invented the "Beany" character in a 1948 contest for what would become Time for Beany
Time for Beany
Time for Beany was an American television series, with puppets for characters, which aired locally in Los Angeles starting in 1949 and nationally on the improvised Paramount Television Network from 1950 to 1955...
, while visiting relatives in California. ”I think it's probably my best bet of being remembered,“ Nelson says. ”I've never been on the New York Times best seller list.“