Kenneth Bulmer

Kenneth Bulmer
Born 14 January 1921(1921-01-14)
London, England
Died 16 December 2005(2005-12-16) (aged 84)
Occupation Author
Nationality United Kingdom
Genres Science fiction

Henry Kenneth Bulmer (14 January 1921 – 16 December 2005) was a British author, primarily of science fiction.

Contents

Life

Born in London, he married Pamela Buckmaster on 7 March 1953. They had one son and two daughters, and were divorced in 1981. Bulmer lived in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England.

Career in science fiction

An extraordinarily prolific writer, Bulmer penned over 160 novels and innumerable short stories, both under his real name and numerous pseudonyms. For instance, his long-running Dray Prescot series of planetary romances was initially published as by Alan Burt Akers, and later as by the first-person protagonist of the series, Prescot himself.

Bulmer's works are popular in translation in some non-English-speaking countries, particularly Germany, to the extent that in some cases they have been published only in German editions, with the original English language versions remaining unpublished.

He also helped create the British comics antihero The Steel Claw. Paul Grist's comics series Jack Staff acknowledges this in the real name of its character The Claw, Ben Kulmer.

Bulmer was also active in science fiction fandom, including travelling to the United States in 1955 as the TransAtlantic Fan Fund (TAFF) delegate.

In the 1970s he edited nine issues of the New Writings in Science Fiction anthology series in succession to John Carnell, who originated the series.

Pen names and imaginary biographies

Bulmer's pseudonyms include Alan Burt Akers, Frank Brandon, Rupert Clinton, Ernest Corley, Peter Green, Adam Hardy, Philip Kent, Bruno Krauss, Karl Maras, Manning Norvil, Chesman Scot, Nelson Sherwood, Richard Silver, H. Philip Stratford and Tully Zetford. Kenneth Johns was a collective pseudonym used for a collaboration with author John Newman. Some of Bulmer's works were published along with the works of other authors under "house names" (collective pseudonyms) Ken Blake (for a series of tie-ins with the 1970s television programme The Professionals), Arthur Frazier, Neil Langholm, Charles R. Pike, and Andrew Quiller. He also ghost-wrote books for Barry Sadler.

In some cases, Bulmer used not only a different name but also included in the books a detailed imaginary biography giving specific personal details substantially different from the true ones. For example, the Viking series published under the name "Neil Langholm" included biographical details intended to create the impression that the series – as appropriate to its subject – was written by a Dane:

"Neil Langholm was born in Copenhagen in 1931, but was educated in England at Eton and Oxford. He started his career as a veterinary surgeon but gave up in 1960 to begin writing full time. He is the author of several bestselling western and science fiction series, which he writes under a pseudonym. Mr. Langholm now lives with his wife and five children in Ruislip. His hobbies are breeding dogs and archery." (From the introduction page to "Blood Sacrifice", 1975).

Bibliography

Science fiction novels

Dray Prescot series (written as Alan Burt Akers and Dray Prescot)

Consists of eleven cycles (the last is unfinished), four stand-alone novels, and three stand-alone short stories as noted below. The first thirty-seven volumes were published by DAW Books from December 1972 – April 1988; to date, print editions of the later volumes have been published solely in German translation by Wilhelm Heyne Verlag from 1991–1998. English language ebooks of volumes 38–41 were later issued by the now-defunct electronic publisher Savanti from September 1995 – December 1998; ebooks of volumes 1–45 have since been issued by another electronic publisher, Mushroom eBooks, which projects issuing the entire saga in ebook form. While its website continues to list 2008 as the hoped-for completion date of the project, as of 10 August 2011 only the first forty-five books of the series are available from this source. A 3 October 2009 blog entry on the website cites family illness and difficulty in locating the manuscripts as responsible for the delay in publishing the remaining volumes.[1] While some of the manuscripts were still missing as of 27 January 2011, the publisher hoped at that time to complete publication of the series in 2011.[2] Bladud Books, a sister imprint of Mushroom eBooks, is currently publishing collected omnibus editions of each cycle in paperback and hardback.

Delian cycle

Collected in The Saga of Dray Prescot: The Delian Cycle (Apr. 2007) ISBN 9781843195573 (hbk)

Havilfar cycle

Collected in The Saga of Dray Prescot: The Havilfar Cycle I and The Saga of Dray Prescot: The Havilfar Cycle II (Feb. 2009) (hbk)

Krozair cycle

Collected in The Saga of Dray Prescot: The Krozair Cycle (Feb. 2009) (hbk)

Vallian cycle

Collected in The Saga of Dray Prescot: The Vallian Cycle (Apr. 2009) (hbk)

Jikaida cycle

Collected in The Saga of Dray Prescot: The Jikaida Cycle (Aug. 2009) (pbk)

Spikatur cycle
Pandahem cycle
Witch War cycle
Lohvian cycle (originally published in German only)
Balintol cycle (originally published in German only)
Phantom cycle (published in German only)

Ryder Hook series (written as Tully Zetford)

The last six books in the series were published only in German, under Bulmer's real name. The first four books have also been published under his real name, collected in a single volume.

Keys to the Dimensions series

Odan the Half-God series (written as Manning Norvil)

Other science fiction novels

Historical novels

The Vikings series (as Neil Langholm)

Wolf's Head series (as Arthur Frazier)

The Eagles – Gladiator series (as Andrew Quiller)

Captain Shark series (as Richard Silver)

Fox series (as Adam Hardy)

Sea Wolf series (as Bruno Krauss)

Western novels

Jubal Cade series (as Charles R. Pike)

Adventure novels

Casca series (as Barry Sadler)

Strike Force: Falklands series (as Adam Hardy)

Television tie-ins

The Professionals series (as Ken Blake)

Children's books

Collections

Anthologies

Notes

  1. ^ Martyn. "A message from Ken Bulmer's family." 3 Oct. 2009.
  2. ^ Martyn. "Publishing Plans for 2011." 27 Jan. 2011.

External links