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Jack L. Chalker

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Jack Laurence Chalker
Chalker in 2003
Born(1944-12-17)December 17, 1944
Baltimore, Maryland
DiedFebruary 11, 2005(2005-02-11) (aged 60)
Baltimore, Maryland
EducationTowson University
Johns Hopkins University
OccupationScience fiction Author
SpouseEva C. Whitley
ChildrenDavid W. Chalker, Steven L. Chalker

Jack Laurence Chalker (December 17, 1944 – February 11, 2005) was an American science fiction author. Chalker was also a Baltimore City Schools history teacher in Maryland for 12 years, retiring in 1978 to write full-time. He also was a member of the Washington Science Fiction Association and was involved in the founding of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society.

Career and family life

He was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Some of his books said that he was born in Norfolk, Virginia although he later claimed that was a mistake; he attended high school at the Baltimore City College. He earned a BA degree in English from Towson University, where he was a theater critic on the school newspaper The Towerlight. In 2003 Towson University named him their Liberal Arts Alumni of the Year. He received a MLA from Johns Hopkins University. He intended to become a lawyer, but financial problems led to him teaching instead; he taught history and geography in Baltimore public schools from 1966 to 1978, most notably at Baltimore City College, and the now defunct Southwest High School. He was also a lecturer at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Institutes of Health, and numerous colleges and universities, mostly on science fiction and technology.

He joined the Washington Science Fiction Association in 1958, and in 1963 Chalker and two friends founded the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. He attended every World Science Fiction Convention, bar one, from 1965 until 2004. He published an amateur SF journal, Mirage, from 1960 to 1971 (a Hugo nominee in 1963 for Best Fanzine),[1] producing ten issues another journal, Interjection, ran 1968–1987 in association with the Fantasy Amateur Press Association. Also, he founded a publishing house, Mirage Press, Ltd., for releasing nonfiction and bibliographic works on science fiction and fantasy.

Chalker was married in 1978 and had two sons.

His stated hobbies included esoteric audio, travel, and working on science-fiction convention committees. He also had a great interest in ferryboats, at his wife's suggestion, their marriage was performed on the Roaring Bull, part of the Millersburg Ferry, in midriver.

Chalker and science fiction

The writers he liked to read included Eric Frank Russell, James White, some Philip José Farmer, the early work of Raymond F. Jones and Robert A. Heinlein, Jack Vance, and others too numerous to mention. From January 1965 to November 2004, he missed only one World Science Fiction Convention.

Chalker's awards included the Daedalus Award (1983), The Gold Medal of the West Coast Review of Books (1984), Skylark Award (1980), Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award (1979), as well as others of varying prestige. He was a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award twice and for the Hugo Award twice. He was posthumously awarded the Phoenix Award by the Southern Fandom Confederation on April 9, 2005. In 1967 Chalker founded the Baltimore Science Fiction Society and he was a 3-term treasurer of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Chalker was also the co-author (with Mark Owings) of The Science Fantasy Publishers (third edition in 1991, updated annually), published by Mirage Press, Ltd,[2] a bibliographic guide to genre small press publishers which was a Hugo Award nominee in 1992. The Maryland young writers contest sponsored by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society was renamed "'The Jack L. Chalker Young Writers Contest" effective April 8, 2006.

He is perhaps best known for his Well World series of novels, but he also wrote many other novels (most, but not all, part of series), and at least nine short stories. Many of his works involve some physical transformation of the main characters. For instance, in the Well World novels, immigrants to the Well World are transformed from their original form to become a member of one of the thousands of sentient species that inhabit that artificial planet. Another example would be that the Wonderland Gambit series resembles traditional Buddhist jataka-type reincarnation stories set in an SF environment. Steven Chalker announced that Wonderland Gambit might be made into a movie, but supposedly its close resemblance to The Matrix resulted in the project being shelved.[3] At the time of his death, Chalker left behind one unfinished novel, Chameleon, and was planning to write Ripsaw following Chameleon.

Illness and death

On September 18, 2003, during Hurricane Isabel, Chalker passed out and was rushed to the hospital with a diagnosis of a heart attack. He was later released, but was severely weakened. On December 6, 2004, he was again rushed to hospital with breathing problems and disorientation, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and a collapsed lung. Chalker was hospitalized in critical condition, then upgraded to stable on December 9, though he did not regain consciousness until December 15. After several more weeks in deteriorating condition and in a persistent vegetative state, with several transfers to different hospitals, he died on February 11, 2005 of kidney failure and sepsis in Bon Secours of Baltimore, Maryland.

Some of his remains are interred in the family plot at Loudon Park Cemetery, with the remainder distributed afterwards off a ferry near Hong Kong, the ferry between Hainan Island and the Chinese mainland, a ferry in Vietnam, a final ride on White's Ferry on Father's Day 2007, and on H. P. Lovecraft's grave (on December 17, 2005).

Bibliography

The Saga of the Well World series

The Watchers at the Well series

The Four Lords of the Diamond series

The Dancing Gods series

  • The River of Dancing Gods, Del Rey, 1984 (ISBN 0-345-30892-1)
  • Demons of the Dancing Gods, Del Rey, 1984 (ISBN 0-345-30893-X)
  • Vengeance of the Dancing Gods, Del Rey, July, 1985 (ISBN 0-345-31549-9)
  • Songs of the Dancing Gods, Del Rey, August, 1990 (ISBN 0-345-34799-4)
  • Horrors of the Dancing Gods, 1994 (ISBN 0-345-37692-7)
  • The Dancing Gods: Part One, Del Rey, November, 1995 (ISBN 0-345-40246-4). This is an omnibus volume containing The River of Dancing Gods and Demons of the Dancing Gods
  • The Dancing Gods II, Del Rey, September, 1996 (ISBN 0-345-40771-7). This is an omnibus volume containing Vengeance of the Dancing Gods and Songs of the Dancing Gods

The Soul Rider series

  • Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, 1984 (ISBN 0-8125-3320-8)
  • Empires of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, 1984 (ISBN 0-8125-3329-1)
  • Masters of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, January, 1985 (ISBN 0-8125-3281-3)
  • The Birth of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, 1985 (ISBN 0-8125-2292-3)
  • Children of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, September, 1986 (ISBN 0-8125-2340-7)

The Rings of the Master series

  • Lords of the Middle Dark Del Rey Books, May, 1986 (ISBN 0-345-32560-5)
  • Pirates of the Thunder, Del Rey Books, March, 1987 (ISBN 0-345-32561-3)
  • Warriors of the Storm, Del Rey Books, August, 1987 (ISBN 0-345-32562-1)
  • Masks of the Martyrs, Del Rey, February, 1988 (ISBN 0-345-34309-3)

The G.O.D. Inc series

  • The Labyrinth of Dreams. Tor Books, March, 1987 (ISBN 0-8125-3306-2)
  • The Shadow Dancers, Tor Books, July, 1987 (ISBN 0-812-53308-9)
  • The Maze in the Mirror, Tor Books, January, 1989 (ISBN 0-8125-2069-6)

The Changewinds series

  • When the Changewinds Blow, Ace-Putnam's, September, 1987
  • Riders of the Winds, Ace Books, May, 1988
  • War of the Maelstrom, Ace-Putnam's, October, 1988 (ISBN 0-441-10268-9)

The Quintara Marathon series

  • The Demons at Rainbow Bridge, Ace-Putnam's, hardcover, September, 1989 (ISBN 0-441-69992-8)
  • The Run to Chaos Keep, Ace-Putnam's, May, 1991 (ISBN 0-441-69348-2)
  • The Ninety Trillion Fausts (a.k.a. 90 Trillion Fausts), Ace-Putnam's, October 1991 (ISBN 0-441-58103-X)

The Wonderland Gambit series

  • The Cybernetic Walrus, Del Rey, trade pb in November, 1995
  • The March Hare Network, 1996
  • The Hot-Wired Dodo, Del Rey, Feb. 1997

The Three Kings series

  • Balshazzar's Serpent, Baen Books 1999
  • Melchior's Fire, Baen Books, 2001.
  • Kaspar's Box, 2003

Stand-alone novels

  • A Jungle of Stars, Ballantine, Del Rey, 1976 (ISBN 0-345-28960-9)
  • The Web of the Chozen, Del Rey, 1978 (ISBN 0-345-27376-1)
  • And the Devil Will Drag You Under, Del Rey, 1979 (ISBN 0-345-30504-3)
  • A War of Shadows, Ace: An Analog Book, 1979
  • Dancers in the Afterglow, Del Rey, 1979, 1982 (ISBN 0-345-30493-4)
  • The Devil's Voyage, Doubleday, 1980
  • The Identity Matrix, Timescape: Pocket Books, 1982 (ISBN 0-671-65547-7)
  • Downtiming the Night Side, Tor Books, May, 1985 (ISBN 0-8125-3288-0)
  • The Messiah Choice, St. Martins - Blue Jay, May, 1985
  • The Red Tape War (with Mike Resnick and George Alec Effinger). Tor hardcover, April, 1991
  • Priam's Lens, Del Rey 1997 (ISBN 0-345-40294-4)
  • The Moreau Factor, Del Rey Feb., 2000
  • Chameleon (partially completed at time of death)

Collection and anthology

  • Dance Band on the Titanic, Del Rey Books, July, 1988 (short stories)
  • Hotel Andromeda [edited by], Ace, 1994 (ISBN 0-441-00010-X)

Besides the short stories included in Dance Band on the Titanic, Chalker wrote at least one other short story:

Omnibus collections of novels

  • The Watchers at the Well, Science Fiction Book Club, 1994
  • Changewinds, Baen, August, 1996
  • The Four Lords of the Diamond (Book Club Edition - 1983)

Miscellaneous

  • An Informal Biography of Scrooge McDuck, Mirage, 1974

References

  1. ^ Best Fanzine:Mirage ed. by Jack L. Chalker 1963 Hugo Awards - The Hugo Awards
  2. ^ "The Mirage Press Ltd". 2004. Retrieved 2006-03-05. [dead link]
  3. ^ "Meteorologist Life". Retrieved 2006-03-05.

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