S P A C E L I G H T
INDEX
VITAL STATISTICS
Name: KNIGHT, Damon Francis
Aged: 79
Born: September 19, 1922
Where: Baker, Oregon
Died: April 15, 2002
Where: Sacred Heart Hospital, Eugene, OR
Interred:
Married: Gertrud Werndl
When: _ _ _
Married 2: Helen (Schlaz) del Rey
When: (div 1962)
Married 3: Katie Gertrude (Meredith) Wilhelm
When: Feb. 23, 1963
Awarded: 1956 Hugo for non-fiction book, In Search of Wonder, and 1995's Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, which he founded. In 1996, along with his wife, received from the Michigan State University an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities.
damon knight
"It occurs to me, now and then, that maybe a critic ought not
to write about any author until the latter is dead;
but I'm afraid some of you bastards will outlive me."
Not many did.
If you put all of the science fiction writers and editors into a database and shook out their one average person, the pattern would be awfully close to the one followed by Damon Knight. He began as a fan, and then a member of fandom, published a little amateur zine, moved to New York City with no means save his wits, and joined the most influencial fan group of his day - The Futurians, began writing short stories, then novels, and, as the Futurians were a critical bunch by and large, Damon soon discovered he had a flair for it. Then from the Futurians forward into the next two decades he was in close career parallel with his friend, James Blish. Both began critiquing novels, moved to Milford, Pa., and when Blish proposed a union type organization of SF writers (to a lot of poo-pooing), Damon created the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 and was its first president. Blish was more the writer while Damon was more the editor and teacher.
As a teacher, he was the co-founding director of the Milford Science Fiction Writer's Conferences and from 1967 forward was a lecturer at the Clarion Workshop of SF & Fantasy, where he influenced decades of young writers who became today's stars. Damon also hobbied in art . . . his last book, Will the Real Hieronymus Bosch Please Stand Up?, was published in 2000 on the Internet at http://fictionwise.com/knight/.
Damon's success at pulp editing was limited, however, as he found the controls and schedules chafing. He was an assistant editor for Popular Publications in 1943/44 and again in 1949/50, and he edited Worlds Beyond in 1950/51 and Worlds of If in 1958/59. He was Book Editor for Science Fiction Adventures, 1953/54, and Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1959/60. A year seemed to be his limit in those types of jobs. He was at his best as an editor of original fiction anthologies, both one-shot titles and his 21 volume series, Orbit.
Like John Taine and Ray Bradbury, Damon displayed a dislike of things mechanical in stories such as "Natural State" and "Idiot Stick." And while not his best short story, "To Serve Man" was certainly his most famous, even his most unforgettable, and became a memorable Twilight Zone episode.
Damon was generally credited (depending on how you look at it): 1) With creating a form of poetry known as Beardmutterings where the spaces are removed from prose poetry, and 2) For inciting the creation of the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) with his fan article, "Unite or Fie!" The N3F was generally considered to be a cumbersome organization and when Damon once again led the charge to form the SFWA, a wit observed, "Didn't he learn anything the first time around?"
Damon was not blessed (or cursed) with mono-mania, and therefore was not driven to achieve some major body of writing. He tended to do what he wanted to do, exploit this or that idea, or tell someone how they had screwed up a really great theme or plot. And there was always his humor (and anger) . . . Damon saw that side in the human condition . . . and had a large touch of 'what the hell, it's all for nothing anyway.' Given all of that, he was serious about his ego, and perceived that in this land of Oz that he found himself a part of, that he was the horse of a different color . . . unbroken to saddle and whip, looking for a range to run free.
Godspeed.
"Marion Bradley, whom I esteem, evidently has the notion that magazines spring full-formed from the publisher's brow, and that writers ought to be grateful to be allowed anywhere near them. Not so, although publishers sometimes get the same delusion. Writers create the substance of magazines. Nobody else involved with it does anything more than tinker."
THUMBNAIL: From a larger color photo by Dave Truesdale.
PEN NAMES:
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.
OBITUARY: SFWA's and The New York Times, and miscellaneous.
