James Gunn
CSSF Founding Director

James Gunn in 2010.

James Gunn was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1923. He received his B.S. degree in journalism in 1947 after three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and his M.A. in English in 1951, both from the University of Kansas. He also did graduate work in theater at KU and Northwestern. In 1969 at the University of Kansas, he taught one of the first courses in science fiction.

In 2007, Gunn was named "Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master." Read the story - and see lots of photos - here. He is Guest of Honor at this year's (2013) WorldCon in San Antonio, Texas; Special Guest at this year's Eaton/SFRA Conference in Riverside, California; and of course permanent Special Guest at the Campbell Conference in Lawrence, Kansas.

Gunn has worked as an editor of paperback reprints, as managing editor of KU alumni publications, as director of KU public relations, as a professor of English, and now is professor emeritus of English and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction. He won national awards for his work as an editor and a director of public relations. He was awarded the Byron Caldwell Smith Award in recognition of literary achievement and the Edward Grier Award for excellence in teaching, was President of the Science Fiction Writers of America for 1971-72 and President of the Science Fiction Research Association from 1980-82, was guest of honor at many regional SF conventions, including SFeracon in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, and Polcon, the Polish National SF convention, in Katowice; was presented the Pilgrim Award of SFRA in 1976, a special award from the 1976 World SF Convention for Alternate Worlds, a Science Fiction Achievement Award (Hugo) by the 1983 World SF Convention for Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction, the Eaton Award in 1992 for lifetime achievement, and named Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2007; was a KU Mellon Fellow in 1981 and 1984; and served from 1978-80 and 1985-present as chairman of the Campbell Award jury to select the best science-fiction novel of the year. He has lectured in Denmark, China, Iceland, Japan, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union for the U.S. Information Agency.

Gunn started writing SF in 1948, was a full-time freelance writer for four years, and has had nearly 100 stories published in magazines and books; most of them have been reprinted, some as many as a dozen times. He is the author of 26 books and the editor of 18; his master's thesis was serialized in a pulp magazine. Four of his stories were dramatized over NBC radio's "X Minus One"; "The Cave of Night" was dramatized on television's Desilu Playhouse in 1959 as "Man in Orbit"; and The Immortals was dramatized as an ABC-TV "Movie of the Week" in 1969 as "The Immortal" and became an hour-long series in 1970-71. His stories and books have been reprinted in Australia, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Scandinavia, South America, Spain, Taiwan, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia.

He is also a championship bridge player.

Go here to read a tribute to James Gunn by former student, John Kessel, presented at Gunn's Grand Master induction ceremony.

Gunn's publications are listed below. In early March, 2012, he sold three more books, including his newest novel:

Transcendental, anticipated publication in August, 2013, by Tor Books. Campbell Conference and SF Writers Workshop attendees have heard excerpts from this wonderful new novel.

Co-authored with Jack Williamson in 1954 and originally published in 1955, Star Bridge will be published in Tor Books' classic reprint series.

Together the two novels, almost 60 years apart, bookend a career and in some ways the space epic itself. Also to be reprinted:

Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction, to be published in China by the Beijing Division of the Shanghai Century Publishing Company. By a marvelous serendipity, the book was translated by Sasha Jiang, the Center's 2011-2012 visiting scholar from China.

James Gunn's Birthday cake from 2004:
"The uninspected belief is not worth holding," Jim's take on the saying, "The uninspected life is not worth living."

Published Books

• This Fortress World, 1955 (Gnome), 1957 (Ace), 1979 (Berkley)
• Star Bridge (with Jack Williamson), 1955 (Gnome), 1956, 1961 (Ace), 1977 (Berkley), 1982 (Del Rey), 1989 (MacMillan), TBA (Tor Books classic reprint series)
• Station in Space, 1958 (Bantam), 1999 (e-reads)
• The Joy Makers, 1961 (Bantam), 1964 (SF Book Club), 1971 (Bantam), 1984 (Crown), 1997 (Buccaneer)
• The Immortals, 1962, 1968 (Bantam), 1979 (Pocket)
• Future Imperfect, 1964 (Bantam), 1992 (e-reads)
• Man and the Future, (editor), 1968 (University Press of Kansas)
• The Witching Hour, 1970 (Dell)
• The Immortal, 1970 (Bantam)
• The Burning, 1972 (Dell)
• Breaking Point, 1972 (Walker), 1973 (DAW)
• The Listeners, 1972 (Scribner's), 1972 (SF Book Club), 1974 (NAL), 1985 (Del Rey), 1991 (Easton Press), 2004 (BenBella)
• Some Dreams are Nightmares, 1974 (Scribner's)
• The End of the Dreams, 1975 (Scribner's)
• Nebula Award Stories Ten (editor), 1975 (Harper & Row), 1976 (Berkley)
• Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction, 1975 (Prentice-Hall), 1976 (A&W Visual Library), 1976 (Quality Paperback Book Club), TBA (the Beijing Division of the Shanghai Century Publishing Company)
• The Magicians, 1976 (Scribner's), 1980 (NAL)
• Kampus, 1977 (Bantam), 1986 (Easton)
• The Road to Science Fiction; From Gilgamesh to Wells (editor), 1977 (NAL)
• The Road to Science Fiction #2: From Wells to Heinlein (editor), 1979 (NAL)
• The Road to Science Fiction #3: From Heinlein to Here (editor), 1979 (NAL)
• The Road to Science Fiction #4: From Here to Forever (editor), 1982 (NAL)
• The Dreamers, 1981 (Simon & Schuster), 1982 (as The Mind Masters) (Pocket)
• Isaac Asimov: The Foundation of Science Fiction, 1982 (Oxford).
• Tiger! Tiger!, 1984 (Drumm)
• Crisis!, 1986 (Tor)
• The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (editor), 1988 (Viking Penguin)
• Inside Science Fiction, 1992 (Borgo)
• The Best of Astounding: Classic Short Novels from the Golden Age of Science Fiction (editor), 1992 (Carroll & Graf)
• The Unpublished Gunn, Part One, 1992 (Drumm)
• The Unpublished Gunn, Part Two, 1996 (Drumm)
• The Joy Machine (1996, Pocket)
• The Road to Science Fiction #5: The British Way, 1998 (White Wolf)
• The Road to Science Fiction #6: Around the World, 1998 (White Wolf)
• Human Voices, 1999 (Henan People's Publishing House)
• The Science of Science-Fiction Writing, 2000 (Scarecrow)
• The Millennium Blues, 2001 (E-reads)
• Human Voices, 2002 (Five Star Books)
• The Road to Science Fiction; From Gilgamesh to Wells (editor), 2002 (Scarecrow)
• The Road to Science Fiction #2: From Wells to Heinlein (editor), 2002 (Scarecrow)
• The Road to Science Fiction #3: From Heinlein to Here, 2002 (Scarecrow)
• The Road to Science Fiction #4: From Here to Forever, 2003 (Scarecrow)
• The Immortals (revised and expanded edition), 2004 (Pocket)
• Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction (with Matthew Candelaria), 2005 (Scarecrow)
• Gift from the Stars, 2005 (Easton Press)
• Inside Science Fiction: Second Edition, 2006 (Scarecrow)
• Reading Science Fiction (with Matthew Candelaria and Marleen S. Barr), 2008 (Palgrave Macmillan)
  Click here for more information and to participate on the editors' blog.
• Transcendental, anticipated August 2013 (Tor Books)

James Gunn with vintage SF magazines, 2008

James Gunn's newest novel, due out late summer 2013
from Tor Books. Click for full-size version.