F. M. Busby

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Francis Marion Busby (March 11, 1921 - February 17, 2005) was a science fiction writer and figure in science fiction fandom. In 1960 he was a co-winner of the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine.

He began writing short fiction in 1957, but did not start writing novels until the 1970s, a good deal of his novel work being space-opera.

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[edit] Biography

"'Francis Marion "Buz" Busby'" was born in Indianapolis, United States, the son of Francis Marion Busby and Clara Nye Busby. The family settled in Colfax, Washington State (US) in 1931 where Busby attended high school. He subsequently attended Washington State College until he joined the National Guard. He was subsequently discharged and returned to college. He did not remain long, however, and enlisted in the US Army on July 23, 1943 at Spokane (WA).

Busby served out the war in the Alaska Communication System, assigned to the island of Amchitka. At the end of World War II he left the army and returned to college to graduate as an engineer. He subsequently returned to the Alaska Communication System to work in a civilian role based in Seattle, WA.

In 1954 Busby married Elinor Doub and subsequently had at least one child, a daughter. Together with his wife and others he published a fanzine entitled Cry of the Nameless which won a Hugo award in 1960. From 1974 to 1976 Busby was Vice President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Busby continued to work for the Alaska Communication System until 1971, when the organisation was sold to private industry and renamed RCA Alascom and he took early retirement from the company.

At the age of fifty he became a freelance science-fiction author. He wrote nineteen published novels and numerous short stories between 1973 and 1996.

He ceased writing fiction at some time after 1996 following the US Court decision Thor Power Tool Company v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, which decided the IRS had the right to tax unsold inventory. Publishers find it most cost effective to print a novel in huge volumes and the court decision meant it was unprofitable to keep books that sold slowly in print, since they were taxed on books that were sitting in warehouses waiting to be sold.

Busby later stated that this, coupled with the decision by book retail chains to base their gross orders for a novel on the net sales of the author's previous novel, effectively froze all authors with middle ranking sales out of the market place.

In November 2004 Busby was diagnosed with severe intestinal problems. He went into the Swedish Medical Center/Ballard Campus for surgery and suffered complications. He underwent further surgery before being moved to Health and Rehabilitation of Seattle]], where he died on Thursday afternoon, February 17, 2005.

[edit] Themes, styles and influences

In the Rissa Kerguelen and Bran Tregare series of Hulzein family novels, Busby's theme was one of human brutality on an institutional scale and how it inevitably shapes the very people who will eventually fight against it. Additional themes touched upon included the worst extremes of corporate power, the oppression of minorities (particularly homosexuals), human rights under totalitarian regimes and the dehumanisation of those who serve totalitarian states.

Although Busby's setting was a "hard science fiction" one, with no faster than light travel and little or no contact with aliens, the series clearly qualifies as space opera by the treatment of the characters involved.

Busby himself was a longtime science-fiction fan and may have been influenced by many writers and artists, though it is difficult to identify any one clear influence in his writing. The Hulzein series of novels is essentially the story of an evil empire defied by a small number of heroic but all too human characters.

[edit] Essays and short stories

Busby reportedly wrote over 40 short stories, amongst them the following:

  • Once Upon a Unicorn (1973)
  • Tell Me All About Yourself (1973)
  • I'm Going to Get You (1974)
  • If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy (1974)
  • First Person Plural (1980)

His work appeared in the following anthologies:

  • The Best Science Fiction of the Year 3 (1974)
  • Universe 5 (1975)
  • 100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories (1978)
  • The Best of New Dimensions (1979)
  • Universe 10 (1980)
  • 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories (1984)

[edit] Bibliography

  • Cage a Man (1973)
  • Once Upon a Unicorn (1973)
  • Tell Me All About Yourself (1973)
  • I'm Going to Get You (1974)
  • If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy (1974)
  • I'm Going to Get You (1974)
  • The Best Science Fiction of the Year 3 (1974)
  • The Proud Enemy (1975)
  • Universe 5 (1975)
  • Rissa Kerguelen (aka Young Rissa) (1976)
  • The Long View (1976)
  • All These Earths (1978)
  • 100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories (1978)
  • The Best of New Dimensions (1979)
  • End of the Line (1980)
  • Zelde M'Tana (1980)
  • First Person Plural (1980)
  • Universe 10 (1980)
  • Rissa and Tregare (1984)
  • The Star Rebel (1984)
  • The Alien Debt (1984)
  • Rebel's Quest (1984)
  • 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories (1984)
  • Rebel's Seed (1986)
  • The Demu Trilogy (omnibus) (1987)
  • The Rebel Dynasty (omnibus) (1987)
  • Getting Home (1987)
  • The Breeds of Man (1988)
  • Slow Freight (1991)
  • The Singularity Project (1993)
  • Islands of Tomorrow (1994)
  • Arrow from Earth (1995)
  • The Triad Worlds (1996)

[edit] Reference

[edit] External links

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