Bob Shaw
Encyclopedia
Bob Shaw, born Robert Shaw, (31 December 1931 – 11 February 1996) was a science fiction
author and fan
from Northern Ireland
. He was noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer
in 1979 and 1980. His short story
"Light of Other Days" was a Hugo Award
nominee in 1967, as was his novel The Ragged Astronauts in 1987.
, the eldest of three sons of a policeman. He was introduced to science fiction at about 11 years old by reading an A. E. van Vogt
short story in an early edition of Astounding magazine (which later became Analog
). He later described the experience as being more significant and long-lasting than taking LSD. He attended Belfast College of Technology. In 1950 he joined the group Irish Fandom which met at the house of James White
, another Northern Irish science fiction writer, on Upper Newtonards Road. The group was influential in the early history of science fiction fandom and produced fanzines Hyphen and Slant, the latter of which Shaw contributed material to. Shaw acquired the nickname "BoSh" during this period. He published his first science-fiction short story in 1951, followed by several others.
He gave up writing and went with his first wife Sadie (née Sarah Gourley) and their son and two daughters to live in Canada from 1956 to 1958. His novel Vertigo is set in Alberta
and Orbitsvilles limitless grasslands may have been influenced by this period in his life. Originally trained as a structural engineer
, he worked as an aircraft designer for Short and Harland
, then as science correspondent The Belfast Telegraph
from 1966-1969 and as publicity officer for Vickers Shipbuilding (1973-1975), before starting to write full-time. In April 1973, during the Troubles
, Shaw and his family moved from Northern Ireland to England, where he produced the majority of his work; first to Ulverston
, then to Grappenhall
in Warrington
. Sadie died suddenly in 1991 and Shaw lived alone there for some years.
Shaw had nearly lost his sight through illness and suffered migraine
-induced visual disturbances
throughout his life. These, and references to eyes and vision, appear as a theme in some of his works. He was known as a drinker and at one stage considered himself an alcoholic
. He was quoted in 1991 as saying: "I write science fiction for people who don't read a great deal of science fiction." He married American Nancy Tucker in 1995 and went to the US to live with her, then returned to England in the last months of his life. Shaw died of cancer on 11 February 1996.
, through which the past can be seen. Shaw sold this story to Analog editor John W. Campbell
, who liked it so much Shaw wrote a sequel for him, "Burden of Proof", in May 1967. The original story was written in four hours, but after years of planning. Shaw expanded on the concept in the novel Other Days, Other Eyes, and the concept was adopted by the Marvel Comics
/Curtis Magazines
anthology magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction
.
His work ranged from essentially mimetic stories with fantastic elements far in the background (Ground Zero Man
) to van Vogtian extravaganzas (The Palace of Eternity). Orbitsville
and its two sequels deal with the discovery of a habitable shell completely surrounding a star
, and the consequences for humanity. It won him the 1976 British SF Association Award. Later in his career he wrote the Land trilogy (The Ragged Astronauts, The Wooden Spaceships and The Fugitive Worlds), set on a system of worlds where technology has evolved with no metals. Like Philip K. Dick
he continually focused on the nature of perception
in his work.
Shaw was known in the fan community for his wit. Following his early membership of Irish Fandom, with Walt Willis
, and James White, he always remained a keen reader of and contributor to fanzines. Later, and for many years, at the British science fiction convention
Eastercon
, he would deliver a humorous speech (often part of his famous series known by the tongue-in-cheek label of "Serious Scientific Talks"); these were eventually collected in The Eastercon Speeches (1979) and A Load of Old Bosh (1995), which included a similar talk from the 1979 Worldcon
in Brighton, 37th World Science Fiction Convention
. For these he won the 1979 and 1980 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer
. He wrote The Enchanted Duplicator
with Walt Willis in 1954, a piece of fiction about science fiction fandom
modelled on John Bunyan
's The Pilgrim's Progress
.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
author and fan
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. He was noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer
Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer
The Hugo Awards are presented every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
in 1979 and 1980. His short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
"Light of Other Days" was a Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
nominee in 1967, as was his novel The Ragged Astronauts in 1987.
Life
Shaw was born and raised in BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, the eldest of three sons of a policeman. He was introduced to science fiction at about 11 years old by reading an A. E. van Vogt
A. E. van Vogt
Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century: the "Golden Age" of the genre....
short story in an early edition of Astounding magazine (which later became Analog
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
). He later described the experience as being more significant and long-lasting than taking LSD. He attended Belfast College of Technology. In 1950 he joined the group Irish Fandom which met at the house of James White
James White (author)
James White was a Northern Irish author of science fiction novellas, short stories and novels. He was born in Belfast and returned there after spending his early years in Canada. After a few years in the clothing industry, he worked at Short Brothers Ltd. from 1965 until taking early retirement in...
, another Northern Irish science fiction writer, on Upper Newtonards Road. The group was influential in the early history of science fiction fandom and produced fanzines Hyphen and Slant, the latter of which Shaw contributed material to. Shaw acquired the nickname "BoSh" during this period. He published his first science-fiction short story in 1951, followed by several others.
He gave up writing and went with his first wife Sadie (née Sarah Gourley) and their son and two daughters to live in Canada from 1956 to 1958. His novel Vertigo is set in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and Orbitsvilles limitless grasslands may have been influenced by this period in his life. Originally trained as a structural engineer
Structural engineer
Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants...
, he worked as an aircraft designer for Short and Harland
Short Brothers
Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company, usually referred to simply as Shorts, that is now based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1908, Shorts was the first company in the world to make production aircraft and was a manufacturer of flying boats during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s...
, then as science correspondent The Belfast Telegraph
The Belfast Telegraph
The Belfast Telegraph is a daily evening newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland by Independent News & Media.It was first published as the Belfast Evening Telegraph on 1 September 1870 by brothers William and George Baird...
from 1966-1969 and as publicity officer for Vickers Shipbuilding (1973-1975), before starting to write full-time. In April 1973, during the Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
, Shaw and his family moved from Northern Ireland to England, where he produced the majority of his work; first to Ulverston
Ulverston
Ulverston is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria in north-west England. Historically part of Lancashire, the town is located in the Furness area, close to the Lake District, and just north of Morecambe Bay....
, then to Grappenhall
Grappenhall
Grappenhall is a suburban village in Warrington, Cheshire, England. It is situated along the Bridgewater Canal, and forms one of the principal settlements of Grappenhall and Thelwall civil parish...
in Warrington
Warrington
Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...
. Sadie died suddenly in 1991 and Shaw lived alone there for some years.
Shaw had nearly lost his sight through illness and suffered migraine
Migraine
Migraine is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by moderate to severe headaches, and nausea...
-induced visual disturbances
Aura (symptom)
An aura is a perceptual disturbance experienced by some migraine sufferers before a migraine headache, and the telltale sensation experienced by some people with epilepsy before a seizure. It often manifests as the perception of a strange light, an unpleasant smell or confusing thoughts or...
throughout his life. These, and references to eyes and vision, appear as a theme in some of his works. He was known as a drinker and at one stage considered himself an alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. He was quoted in 1991 as saying: "I write science fiction for people who don't read a great deal of science fiction." He married American Nancy Tucker in 1995 and went to the US to live with her, then returned to England in the last months of his life. Shaw died of cancer on 11 February 1996.
Works
Shaw is perhaps best known for "Light of Other Days" (August 1966), the story that introduced the concept of slow glassSlow light
Slow light is the propagation of an optical pulse or other modulation of an optical carrier at a very low group velocity. Slow light occurs when a propagating pulse is substantially slowed down by the interaction with the medium in which the propagation take place.Researchers at the Rowland...
, through which the past can be seen. Shaw sold this story to Analog editor John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...
, who liked it so much Shaw wrote a sequel for him, "Burden of Proof", in May 1967. The original story was written in four hours, but after years of planning. Shaw expanded on the concept in the novel Other Days, Other Eyes, and the concept was adopted by the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
/Curtis Magazines
Curtis Magazines
Curtis Magazines was an imprint of Marvel Comics that existed from 1971 to 1980. The imprint published black-and-white magazines that did not carry the Comics Code Authority seal. Initially, page counts varied between 68,76, and 84 pages....
anthology magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction
Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction
Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction was a 1970s black-and-white, science fiction comics magazine published by Marvel Comics' parent company, Magazine Management, under the imprint Curtis Magazines....
.
His work ranged from essentially mimetic stories with fantastic elements far in the background (Ground Zero Man
Ground Zero Man
Ground Zero Man is a science fiction novel by Bob Shaw, first published in 1971, and then revised as The Peace Machine in 1985.The plot follows the main character, Lucas Hutchman, an "undistinguished mathematician", who invents a machine that may detonate virtually instantaneously every nuclear...
) to van Vogtian extravaganzas (The Palace of Eternity). Orbitsville
Orbitsville
Orbitsville , published in 1975, is a science fiction novel by Bob Shaw about the discovery of a Dyson sphere-like artifact surrounding a star. It has won the 1976 British Science Fiction Award for the best novel...
and its two sequels deal with the discovery of a habitable shell completely surrounding a star
Dyson sphere
A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson. Such a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output...
, and the consequences for humanity. It won him the 1976 British SF Association Award. Later in his career he wrote the Land trilogy (The Ragged Astronauts, The Wooden Spaceships and The Fugitive Worlds), set on a system of worlds where technology has evolved with no metals. Like Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
he continually focused on the nature of perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
in his work.
Shaw was known in the fan community for his wit. Following his early membership of Irish Fandom, with Walt Willis
Walt Willis
Walter Alexander Willis was a well-known Irish science fiction fan, resident in Belfast.Willis was awarded a 1958 Hugo Award as "Outstanding Actifan" , which replaced the Best Fanzine category that year. He was nominated for a best fan writer Hugo in 1969 and two retro-Hugos in the same category...
, and James White, he always remained a keen reader of and contributor to fanzines. Later, and for many years, at the British science fiction convention
Science fiction convention
Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of various forms of speculative fiction including science fiction and fantasy. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expression as movies and...
Eastercon
Eastercon
Eastercon is the common name for the British national science fiction convention. From 1948 until the 1960s, the convention was held over the three-day Whitsun bank holiday at the end of May. Since then it has been held over the four-day Easter holiday weekend...
, he would deliver a humorous speech (often part of his famous series known by the tongue-in-cheek label of "Serious Scientific Talks"); these were eventually collected in The Eastercon Speeches (1979) and A Load of Old Bosh (1995), which included a similar talk from the 1979 Worldcon
Worldcon
Worldcon, or more formally The World Science Fiction Convention, is a science fiction convention held each year since 1939 . It is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society...
in Brighton, 37th World Science Fiction Convention
37th World Science Fiction Convention
The 37th World Science Fiction Convention was Seacon '79, which was held in Brighton, UK, 23–26 August 1979 at the Metropole Hotel...
. For these he won the 1979 and 1980 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer
Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer
The Hugo Awards are presented every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
. He wrote The Enchanted Duplicator
The Enchanted Duplicator
The Enchanted Duplicator is science fiction fan fiction written by Walt Willis and Bob Shaw. It was originally published in February 1954, in an edition of 200 numbered copies, and has been reprinted many times, notably in an edition illustrated by Eddie Jones in 1962; in Amazing Stories in...
with Walt Willis in 1954, a piece of fiction about science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
modelled on John Bunyan
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
's The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been...
.
Nonfiction
- The Best of the Bushel (1979)
- The Eastercon Speeches (1979)
- How to Write Science Fiction (1993)
- A Load of Old BoSh (1995) (includes The Eastercon Speeches)
Partial list of short stories
- "Light of Other Days" (1967)
- "Skirmish on a Summer Morning" (1976)
- "Unreasonable Facsimile" (1974)
- "A Full Member of the Club" (1974)
- "The Silent Partners" (1959)
- "The Element of Chance" (1969)
- "The Gioconda Caper" (1976)
- "An Uncomic Book Horror Story" (1975)
- "Deflation 2001" (1972)
- "Waltz of the Bodysnatchers" (1976)
- "A Little Night Flying" ("Dark Icarus") (1975)