Name: HARNESS, Charles Leonard Aged: 89
Born: December 29, 1915 Where: Colorado City, TX
Died: September 20, 2005 Where: North Newton, KS
Interred: ___
Married: Nell S. White When: 1938 (died 1996)
Awards: ___

Charles L. Harness

"All knowledge is expanding exponentially, going off into the fourth or fifth dimensions. The problem with that is there's no line of demarcation on a page of mathematics that indicates the barrier between actual knowledge and theoretical, even hypothetical, fiction."

Charles Harness was a hobbyist sf writer...a man too busy with his life and career to be prolific. But he was always working on the edges and became reasonably productive in his later life when he wanted to stay busy and have some fun.

Harness earned a B.S. degree (chemistry) in 1942 from George Washington University in Washington DC, and a law degree in 1946. Between those degrees and during WWII, he had worked as a mineral economist for the US Bureau of Mines. Then he worked as a patent attorney for American Cyanamid (1947-1953) and for W. R. Grace & Co. (1953-1981). After retirement Harness went back to school and studied astronomy....and the majority of his science fiction occurred after that.

Prior to and during the WWII time period Harness was influenced to write science fiction by what he saw in "Amazing Stories" and "Astounding," with an overall admiration for A. E. Van Vogt, whom he tried to emulate. His first science fiction story, ''Time Trap,'' appeared in Astounding in 1948.

Every person of intellect passes through an experience or episode that defines them...that pushes a button and says, "Pay attention, this is why you are alive." For Charles Harness it was his time spent at American Cyanamid. ''As far as striking gold for raw material for stories, that lab was absolutely wonderful! The people, the projects...it was a gold mine." He wrote "The Rose" while there and an excellent article on patent prosecution, "Improbable Profession," that appeared in Astounding. Harness's favorite novel was The Catalyst, drawn from an inventor, John Mackay, who worked there but died of inoperable brain tumors. "He invented when he was not supposed to invent, and failed to invent when he was supposed to. He did everything the company didn't want him to do!"

In the movie, Predator II, there is a line that goes, "You never see the demon until him come callin'." A perfect description of a Charles L. Harness story.

In the late 1970's, editor Curtis C. Smith sent out questionaires to all English speaking sf writers on the planet for his book, Twentieth Century's Science Fiction Writers (1981). It was several (10+) pages long and contained multiple fields to be filled in. (I threw mine in the waste-can to save time.) At the end was a section labeled "COMMENTS." Below is Harness's total remark.

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PEN NAMES: Leonard Lockhard (joint, w Theodore L. Thomas, who died four days after Harness) and Erin Leonard (joint, w Shiloh Erin Cullen).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.

OBITUARY: Stockham Family Funeral Home

Send relevant email to George C. Willick