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Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction

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A renowned science fiction writer offers a lively account of his life and work, discussing his youth, his vision of America's technological future, his relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and editors, and more

276 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1984

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Jack Williamson

541 books166 followers
John Stewart Williamson who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction".

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Profile Image for Bobby Underwood.
Author 143 books352 followers
May 24, 2018
“If the reader isn’t interested, early and firmly, all else is lost.” — Jack Williamson


His family was barely removed from the Great Frontier, and they traveled by covered wagon. Eking out a living in isolated areas far from people would have a profound effect on Jack Williamson’s life. It cut him off from nearly all social interaction as a young boy, making him green and awkward in relating to people later. When he saw the cover of the new magazine, Amazing, on a trip into town, it fueled his imagination, and for his entire life, that world was a larger part of him than any other.

Williamson’s candid bio reveals a decent man of science and wonder, but a man so in conflict with himself it spawned a published medical paper. Yet Jack Williamson became one of the greatest writers of science fiction the genre has ever known, helping it to grow and flourish. Conflicted with society, with himself, socially awkward, he lived and breathed science fiction, cherishing the friends he made — the list of science fiction greats is staggering — with whom he could talk all night. He could easily have gone into scientific research — he had an opportunity — but he chose to write about it instead, weaving science — some of which was not yet reality — into entertaining pulp stories that had great movement, and greater heart.

As science fiction began changing, the Golden Age of it fast approaching, the inner conflict became to much, and a dry spell ensued. Williamson could toil, and make outlines, but needed to collaborate with Frederik Pohl in order to keep his hand in. He went back to school, earning degrees, eventually becoming a teacher of science fiction — because for Jack Williamson there was always science fiction. Finally, when he burst out creatively again, he merged his pulp side with astounding ideas, bridging the gap between science fiction’s past, and its present and future. Along the way — much later in life than most — he married Blanche, a girl he’d known since childhood. They made a home together, traveled, and led a full and happy life, until tragedy struck. A car wreck, with Jack at the wheel, perhaps age a factor. A man whose passion was mostly for science fiction, loved her very much, and lived with guilt. He felt his life was over when she died, but friends and family brought him back. Like the man himself, there is a likability to his bio, a laconic friendliness, but also a reserve. He is candid, honest, and lets you see, but he doesn’t let you get too close to those personal things.

A good example of this is his candidness about his awkwardness socially. Those involved in science fiction’s early days were a different breed. They were close, supportive (at least the writers). Most were men, but there were a couple of women as well. Jack was friends with them too, but science fiction came first — perhaps because he was more comfortable in space than with people, especially the opposite sex. He found a home in science fiction, with those who shared his great love and passion. They had a little club, a gathering really. Heinlein, Leigh Brackett, a slew of greats. In a story made all the more amusing by Williamson’s matter-of-fact telling, he recounts how he would sometimes bring the young Ray Bradbury to these dinners. Other times he would not because Bradbury was just so enthusiastic, so “loud” that Leigh Brackett would ask Williamson not to bring him along on a particular week.

From the very outset, Jack Williamson, first and foremost, kept readers interested. He began so early in science fiction’s infancy it was not yet called such; it was called scientifiction. All science fiction sprung from the early pulp magazines like Amazing, and some of the best of those stories, the most influential, came from Jack Williamson. Made the second Grand Master by Science Fiction Writers of America (the first recipient was his friend Bob Heinlein), his career extended from the pulp magazines, through the Golden Age of science fiction, and into modern times. As it turned out, the actual term, genetic engineering, had been used a short time before Williamson used it in 1951. Yet all the way back in 1937, in a story called Spider Island, Williamson wrote about genetic engineering, calling it genetic process. He is given credit for the term terraform, however, which is widely used today. Together with Frederik Pohl, he wrote a story about human organ transplantation before it was a reality. Such were the days of wonder:

“A story doesn’t work unless I believe it, unless it is something I want to say, unless it springs from my own emotion and experience, unless I can identify with the people. The stories that work come to life as I write them, the people as real as those I meet every day. When a novel is done, I always feel a pang of loss at parting from good friends.”

You can feel that when you read a Jack Williamson story, whether it is a classic like With Folded Hands or an enjoyable pulp story from the early 1930s. Even his later works, rich with ideas, more sophisticated that before, were full of movement. It was one of the pulp elements that he never lost. It makes him more accessible than many of the science fiction greats, and somehow, in modern times, that has become a knock on him. It is terribly unfair. Williamson addresses that type of criticism here in his bio, in a kind manner, but he is also to the point. He speaks of a long critique of Legion of Time, and how too often great works are not judged within their context, their time and place, modern audiences wanting to apply the “now” to something written when science fiction was still in those days of wonder when much of the technology did not yet exist:

“The article is half the length of the novel. Perhaps I should have been flattered that he had chosen a story of mine (Legion of Time) for dismemberment, yet I couldn’t help feeling that he was using a sledgehammer to flatten an unsuspecting gnat.”

Asimov in fact was much harsher concerning criticism from readers, and both men were right. Williamson also speaks about the importance of science fiction, which he taught in academia, fighting for its acceptance in those circles as an important genre:

“Science fiction remade my life when I found it long ago in those early pulp magazines where it was being invented.”

“With very few taboos, it (Science Fiction) can deal with nearly every social and moral and technical problem that the human race meet, from nearly any point of view.”

“Taken as prophecy {SF} is the wrong way to take it. I think most future fiction tends too far toward the dark side. That’s an unfortunate accident. Reader interest demands conflict. Without the presence of evil and the battle to defeat it, there is no story. We tend to magnify the evil. Sadly, that fosters a habit of pessimism.”

“In times that sometimes disturb me, I try to see the international appetite for science fiction as a sign of widening awareness, at least a spark of hope that our threatened world can somehow sense its dangers in time to save itself.”

Williamson talks about the effect of unleashing the Bomb, and how science fiction writers were some of the first to realize how sobering and potentially dangerous all they’d dreamed and been writing about had now become. On very rare occasion, mostly in the section added years after the first printing, Williamson gets a bit political, and I didn’t necessarily agree on every point. I found his take on beliefs and religion much softer and more amenable than Asimov’s or some others, yet he obviously felt conflicted there, as well, because of his background and that of his parents. Following the added section covering the years after this was first published, there is a short diary of Williamson’s time during the WWII. He enlisted despite having a deferral from his doctor.

What this bio is mostly, however, is a magnificent, easygoing look at those early days of wonder, as Jack Williamson experienced them. He almost glosses over the importance of some of his own submitted stories. He’d make three hundred bucks one year, fourteen hundred the next. Each time he had money, he’d ride the rails like a hobo, wanting to see some of the world, because he knew it might give him a story. He talks about the early pulp magazines, the other men (and women) submitting stories, and the editors of those magazines. These are big names, famous names to science fiction lovers who appreciate its history and beginnings. Basically you live year to year with Williamson as it relates to science fiction, which for many years, was all Williamson had. The stories, the struggles, the paltry payments, the people he got to know. It doesn’t go deep, because that would be too personal, but you get the feeling that science fiction really did give Jack Williamson a life, perhaps as much as his wife did later down the line.

If you have some knowledge of pulp science fiction, and the Golden Age of science fiction, I think you’ll enjoy this more than if you don’t. If you’re a fan of Jack Williamson, as I am, this is a must. Each chapter begins with the great accomplishments or happening of the years covered in the chapter, which is also fascinating. There is so much wonder here, that it gives the reader a sense of melancholy, a longing for those days. Yet only occasionally does Williamson himself go there, as he does in talking about the evolution of science fiction as it escaped its pulp origins:

“The sense of wonder is almost gone, along with the thrill of discovery and the alluring hopes of better things to come. Possible futures now seem trite or, more often, dreadful.”

Yet there is optimism, especially when Williamson talks about the bright young people in his classes. Wonder’s Child is in essence, a life in science fiction. It’s candid, matter-of-fact, and you get a sense of Williamson himself. Some will no doubt expect some deeper delving, but that just wasn’t Williamson’s nature. Wonder’s Child is a chronicle of science fiction from its early days to modern times, through one man’s eyes. I can think of no one better to show it to us than the man who was the final link to those days of wonder.
Profile Image for Craig.
6,358 reviews179 followers
December 31, 2020
This is a very well-written, thorough, thoughtful, honest, and humble autobiography. Williamson tells the story of his beginnings when the available modes of travel were by horse, rail, or stagecoach, up through his world travels and life in the 1980s. Along the way he makes interesting observations about science fiction and his place in the field, as well as his personal and academic life. Williamson's first fiction sale was in 1928 to Amazing Stories, and he was still writing into the current century. His professional evolution was truly amazing, from the Legion space operas to classics like With Folded Hands and Darker Than You Think and his collaborations with Frederik Pohl to his later solo novels, and it's really fascinating to read the story of the man behind the stories. Many autobiographies are of interest only for academic purposes or to big fans of the particular author, but this one shines a bright light on the sweeping changes of life in the twentieth century.
Profile Image for Eugene.
Author 5 books27 followers
January 26, 2020
I couldn't put it any better than another reviewer on here (Denis) did: 'A very heartfelt honest autobiography. Jack's candour and humility are like no other I have ever come across.' So true.

I've always been a SF reader, and when I was a teenager Jack Williamson and Edmond Hamilton were two of my favourite authors, from the pioneering 'pulp' SF days when magazines like Amazing, Astounding, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Weird Tales were printed on cheap, rough pulp paper and had lurid covers. Rockets blasted off, and - if the covers were to be believed - bug eyed monsters pounced on scantily-clad beauties. If not the birth of SF, it was its blossoming. The stories were full of that most important SF ingredient, wonder. And nobody did wonder better than Jack Williamson.

For me, his autobiography was utterly enchanting and fascinating. As a boy he faced incredible hardship, travelling west in a covered wagon, that later - parked next to his parents' shack - became his long-term bedroom. A curious boy, his first encounter with electricity saw him sticking his fingers into the socket to experience its wonder. Horribly shy and socially awkward, he was saved by his relentless determination to write. SF was in many ways his salvation, as it gave him a focus and a community of like-minded people. For somebody who obviously lacked confidence in many ways, he was also a nomad and adventurer. Riding the rails as a hobo during the depression, booking cheap little rooms in stranger towns to bang out his stories on an old typewriter.

Anyway, a great read and I would recommend it highly, especially to anybody like myself who has read JW and has heard of pulp SF ...
Profile Image for Denis.
Author 1 book34 followers
February 8, 2014
A very heartfelt honest autobiography. Jack's candor and humility are like no other I have ever come across. He is most likely the longest lived SF writer of the genre. He published his first (scientifiction) story "The Metal Man" in Hugo Gernsback's Amazing, at the age of twenty, in the Dec. 1928 and his final novel "Stonehenge Gateway" in 2005. Much happens in between - at least what happens until 1983 - when Williamson, in his seventies, published this autobiography (He had added an update for the twentieth anniversary of the publication, but I have not read that one.)

I have only read a few works by Williamson: "Humanoids" and the sequel: "Humanoid Touch", "Stonehenge Gateway" as well as "The Metal Man". All are quite good, but this bio definitely encourages me to read on. I am looking forward to: "Darker Than You Think", "Terraforming Earth" (which I have begun) as well as almost all others, classic and recent.

Jack Williamson eventually became a university professor, lecturing on the history and writing of science fiction. He was his own toughest critic. Throughout the book, when he reviews, or at least comments on, his own work, he mostly discusses its short comings, rather than boast about his expert craftsmanship and the historical part the stories played in the history of pulp SF, not to mention the significant contribution they had on the current state of the genre (as did Asimov, Silverberg and L.Ron Hubbard of their own work, though their work did not appear until quite a bit later.)

As much as this bio is of his an incredible journey through a long career of publishing SF stories, it is also the story of a true fan of the genre. Williamson never got past the awe and admiration he felt for the writings of SF stories by any author.

An added element in his bio, was his retelling of his occasion to travel the world with his longtime wife Blanche. This, though segmented and brief, rivaled Heinlein and Virginia's "Tramp Royale".


Very Good.

Profile Image for Jeff.
150 reviews8 followers
June 6, 2011
One of the Grand Masters of Science Fiction, Williamson's autobiography spans from riding with his family in a covered wagon to their homestead in New Mexico right up to the journeys of the Pioneer space probes past Jupiter and on out of the solar system. Seeing the development of science fiction in the 20th century from an insider's perspective is fascinating as is reading about his passion to continue writing even when doing so paid little to nothing in those early years of the pulps and short stories. A unique and enjoyable read.
Profile Image for John Peel.
Author 350 books166 followers
March 5, 2022
Jack Williamson sold his first story to the pulps in the Twenties, and he was still writing when he died in 2006. He wrote this autobiography in the Eighties, with twenty years still to go. It's a fascinating account of growing up in very rural New Mexico when cars were the latest invention and living to see men land on the moon and explore the reaches of the solar system. Well-written and introspective, it's an enjoyable romp through the growth of science fiction and the many people he met on that journey.
Profile Image for Margaret Haigh.
566 reviews2 followers
July 20, 2020
This was a marvellous read and a wander through the 20th century through the life of a professional writer and college lecturer. A different perspective on contemporary America.
Profile Image for The Poor Person's Book Reviewer .
400 reviews17 followers
April 10, 2025
DNF in 1948. Nothing wrong with this. the writing was excellent and it was fun to follow along and read some of his short stories as they got published in his life But ultimately non fiction/autobiographies just don’t keep me entertained. There’s nothing in here you can’t get from a few paragraphs in a wiki page.
146 reviews9 followers
October 26, 2023
Dr. Williamson was my English 101 professor at ENMU in Potales in 1970. My two older brothers had taken classes with him before me. He was fascinating as a teacher...soft spoken with a slow eastern New Mexico drawl. I had no idea he was prize winning scifi aficionado, only that he led our class through poetry and prose with quiet prodding, and he said he "rather liked" my paper on Thomas Paine despite the unusual margins...ha. I still have that paper with his comments in red...
I have read THE HUMANOIDS and other of his tales over the last fifty plus years. And now, after reading this autobiography I realize what a widely traveled, prolific author and generous family man he was. What an honor to say I knew him, and even shared a coffee off campus one morning before classes. One of a kind, he was.
Profile Image for Jim Emerson.
Author 4 books2 followers
June 14, 2022
Jack Williamson was born in 1908 on a ranch in the Sierra Madres mountains. This writer who spent his life creating stories of space travel, futuristic inventions and alien civilizations, as a child moved to rural New Mexico by covered wagon. Thus began the life of one of science fiction's longest lived and most productive writers. His career covered nine decades, a record in any field. His autobiography is not only a wonderful recollection of his own life but of the birth and growth of the science fiction genre as a whole. An absolute treasure to read!
Profile Image for Bruce.
115 reviews9 followers
July 27, 2015
[Disclaimer: I received my copy of this book as a gift from the author]

(More detailed review to follow at a later date)
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