Tue 4 Jan 2011
A Science Fiction Review by Dan Stumpf: MURRAY LEINSTER – The Brain-Stealers.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[16] Comments
MURRAY LEINSTER – The Brain-Stealers. Ace Double #D-79, paperback original, 1954. Published dos-Ã -dos with Atta, by Francis Rufus Bellamy. Reprinted by Ace in single volume form, circa 1974. Trade paperback: Wildside Press, 2007.
So came last October, and I started my month of ghoulish reading with Murray Leinster’s The Brain-Stealers (Ace, 1954), a crackerjack bit of sci-fi from a master of the form.
This one starts fast and never lets up, as a spaceship full of blood-sucking aliens lands on the first page in a remote part of the country and discharges a band of “little guys”: hairless, short-limbed, sharp-toothed and incredibly selfish beings with the power of mind control, who proceed to enslave the locals and propagate, with plans of world domination.
Said world is a clever wrinkle Leinster throws in the plot-pot. Brain-Stealers is set in a near-future society (near-future in 1954 that is) ruled by something called “Security” where science, culture, even knowledge itself are carefully regulated in the name of peace and safety.
(Which makes the whole thing unbelievable; I mean, now really! Can you honestly imagine people giving up their individual rights for the promise of security? But I digress…)
Such a world seems ripe for enslavement, but in the tradition of the best sci-fi, Leinster rings in an escaped scientist (experimenting in thought-projection no less!) who lands in the middle of things and finds himself in a run-and-jump war with the aliens.
This is pulp as it oughta be: stylish and fast, with a plot that keeps twisting right to the end as Leinster throws his rogue scientist in and out of peril with breath-taking speed. You honestly can’t spend a better couple hours than sitting down with this and … letting your mind go!
January 4th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
I really liked three of Leinster’s short stories:
First Contact (1945)
The Ethical Equations (1945)
A Logic Named Joe (1946)
These are very inventive and prophetic at looking at future technology, including anticipating the Internet.
Have never read any of his novels.
He wrote some crime novels too, but I’ve never seen copies.
January 4th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
From Wikipedia
“Murray Leinster (June 16, 1896 – June 8, 1975) was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Leinster
Most of his crime fiction, though not all, was written under his real name, Will F. Jenkins, and so were his western novels.
Not that anyone will remember him for any of those. But when he was writing as Murray Leinster, as Dan says, he was one of best of the sci-fi masters, with very few equals.
His SF was always bursting with ideas, even though I can’t imagine anyone mistaking his work for literature. He came of the era of the pulp magazines and he never got totally away from them. (Not at all a bad thing.)
While I have the later Ace printing of this book, and dozens of his other SF novels and collections, I don’t seem to have this particular Ace Double, and that amazes me too. There can’t be many I’m missing.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:25 pm
I really enjoyed this one, but then I have enjoyed almost everything I have read by him. Few did this sort of fiction better than Leinster. I think he published his first science fiction story in 1919 and continued writing up to his death, earning him the title “The Dean of Science Fiction”. For longevity and consistency of product, only Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson also come to mind.
In addition to his mystery and western novels, he also wrote several romance novels early in his career, as well as number of adventure stories. He was a pulp master in just about every genre. It’s sad to realize that much of his best material is currently OOP.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Jerry
I almost said something about Leinster’s being the “Dean of Science Fiction” in my Comment #2, but just to err on the side of caution, or rather not to, I thought I’d google the phrase. I’d always associated Leinster with the title, so it came as quite a surprise to find out that most online sources credit Robert Heinlein as being the one. News to me. Not to denigrate RAH, but when did this come about?
I agree with you 100% about Pohl and Williamson. I met Pohl briefly once. I know he’s ailing a bit, but it’s good to know he’s still around.
— Steve
January 4th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
I didn’t respond originally because I didn’t want to be argumentative, but Robert A. Heinlein has been called the “Dean of Science Fiction” since the late 1950s at least.
It was part of the boilerplate under RAH’s photo on the Signet paperbacks of that period, which may mean that it may have begun as an advertising gimmick by Signet.
But certainly I have read many quotations from other giants of speculative fiction’s Golden Age over the decades that used the phrase about Heinlein…
In the interest of full disclosure, I freely admit that I am a fervent admirer of Heinlein. But it seems to me that history has conclusively spoken about RAH’s towering genre presence, at least through the mid 1960s–through THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, say.
January 5th, 2011 at 12:31 am
You’re not being argumentative, Rick, just stating the facts, and they (and Google) are on your side.
Only a handful of sites refer to Leinster as the “dean,” enough to say that Jerry and I are not alone, but the vast majority of the references I found online are to Heinlein.
Through the mid-1960s, at least, and maybe even later, the Big Three in Science Fiction circles were RAH, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Leinster’s work doesn’t nearly come up to any of theirs. Whatever references to him as “dean” were more in terms of longevity, I always assumed, as well as productivity — one of the first generation of SF authors that made good.
January 5th, 2011 at 7:02 am
Leinster was called “Dean” because of he had published science fiction longer than any other writer of the time. The references seem to have mostly come from the science fiction magazines — I think P Schuyler Miller often referred to him as such in his Astounding/Analog book reviews; Sam Moskowitz may have also used the phrase; and — if memory serves — he wa also referred to as such in Amazing or Fantastic; and possibly by R. A. W. Lowndes in some of his magazines. (Although I did not read any at the time, I assume that the fanzines also went along with this.) Usually the subject was framed as: Leinster has been writing science fiction since 1919, making him the Dean of Science Fiction.
As a long-time Heinlein fan, I honestly do not remember him ever being called the dean of science fiction. Heinlein was, of course, the biggest of the Big Three during that time and certainly his influence on the field was far greater than Leinster’s.
The fact that many sources now cite Heinlein as the dean of science fiction may lay to a bit of revisionist thinking on the part of some fans or publishers. Or, perhaps, the title had been conferred upon him by someone after Leinster’s death in 1975.
(People do like to transfer honorifics, sometimes to the point of being ridiculous. I remember watching Rose Kennedy’s funeral being televised and some dumbass Boston anchorman declaring that, now that Rose was dead, Ted Kennedy assumed the role of “Kennedy family matriarch”. If the role of dean of science fiction were to be transferred after Leinster’s death, surely it should have gone to Williamson.)
January 5th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Uh, why can there be two “Dean of science fiction”? There is at least one at every college, so science fiction should have room for two.
January 5th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I asked the question on the FictionMags group, and Bud Webster quickly supplied me with what I think is the definitive answer.
The short version is
“… there have been two writers blessed by their publishers with the appellation of “The Dean of Science Fiction.” Chronologically, the first was Murray Leinster (pseudonym of Will F. Jenkins), the title having been bestowed by that very stfnal of periodicals, Time Magazine. The second, and the one I personally recall best as titular dean, was Robert A. Heinlein (RAH).
“Now, let’s define our terms so we’ll all be on the same page. Neither of these gentlemen ever, to my knowledge, held a university post as TA, let alone as head of a department. […] The title was nothing other than a marketing gimmick. There were no ceremonial robes, no speeches, and no duties of office ….
“What their publishers meant was that they had both, in turn, reached the position of doyen – Grand Old Men. Elder Statesmen. Or Old Farts, depending on how seriously you take these things. […] These days, marketing would more likely flee in terror at the very idea of such a phrase being used to sell books, and so there are no more “deans” ….”
while the longer one is here:
http://www.philsp.com/articles/anthopology_101_05.html
as an extract from Bud’s book Anthopology 101, available at Amazon. [Hint.]
January 5th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
When I hear “the dean of science fiction,” I immediately think of Leinster, but that’s because of my age, I’m sure. When I was a kid, Leinster was the dean, no question. And I highly recommend Bud’s book.
January 6th, 2011 at 7:15 am
I thought Koontz was the Dean of Science Fiction!
Maybe Leinster should be the Dean of Sci-Fi.
January 6th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I’d vote for both motions!
January 6th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Back up in Comment #9, I mentioned I’d asked the Deanship question on the FictionMags Yahoo group. Besides the reply from Bud Webster, some additional discussion ensued, much of it duplicating are own commentary, but Art Lortie did some actual research, a super super job, in fact — and he’s graciously allowed me to repost here.
From this point on, it’s Art who has the floor:
I did some digging at Google Books cuz … well … just cuz.
The term “dean of science fiction” seems to have begun around 1950 or so — see http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=dean+of+science+fiction&year_start=1950&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
Just prior to this, Samuel Stephenson Smith in “How to double your vocabulary” (1947) referred to John W. Campbell as ‘The dean of science-fiction editors’.
Murray Leinster / Will Jenkins was first called the ‘The dean of science-fiction writers’ by Everett Franklin Bleiler, Thaddeus Eugene Dikty in 1950’s ‘The Best science-fiction stories and novels’, with Leinster, in 1951 in ‘Great stories of science fiction’ saying “I am considered, in fact, the “dean” of science-fiction authors by virtue of my having outlived a number of better men.”
Galaxy magazine: Volume 3, Issues 1-6 (1951??) somewhere bestowed that honor on Malcolm Jameson; and English journal: Volume 40 (1951) had an ad (?) for THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON naming Robert A. Heinlein the dean. In the mid-60’s, his name — and that of Clarke — began to be used most often.
In 1957, Amazing Stories said “Verne, who was long regarded as the dean of science fiction writers”
In ‘Seekers of tomorrow: masters of science fiction’ (1967), Sam Moskowitz says “The dean of Science Fiction Writers is undeniably Murray Leinster, but who is heir apparent? Most certainly it must be Edmond Hamilton, one of the most underestimated (though not unappreciated) writers of science fiction.”
Jack Williamson gets thrown into the mix in 1976 in Galileo, and Asimov in 1972 in Marjorie Miller’s checklist. Donald A. Wollheim in 1987. Theodore Sturgeon in 1981. Samuel Delany in 2001.
In related honoraries:
Frank Paul, in Satellite science fiction: Volume 2, Issues 1-6 (1957) was deemed “The Dean of Science Fiction Illustrators”. Sam Moskowitz bestowed this honor on Virgil Finlay in ‘Worlds of Tomorrow’, November 1965. Kelly Freas inherited the title in 1990’s ‘In the stream of stars: the Soviet/American space art book’. Patricia Janis Broder, in 2000, gives the title to Dean Cornwell in ‘Dean Cornwell: Dean of Illustrators”
Cinefantastique: Volume 5 (1976) called George Pal, the dean of science fiction filmmakers.
There are at least 2 articles discussing Dean worthiness:
Somewhere in ‘The Magazine of fantasy & science fiction’ in 1957 (I can’t find the exact citation) it says “Few titles are so loosely bandied about as that of “the Dean of Science Fiction” — “a term which has been applied at one time or another to virtually every living male professional, with the possible exception of Harlan Ellison.” Haha 🙂
Isaac Asimov’s ‘Dean of Science Fiction’ in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, November 1979, (reprinted in Asimov on Science Fiction ) says “In the following essay, I discuss some of the more ancient members of our craft. … He also, in each one of the fifteen introductions, identified me as “the dean of science fiction.” Which I’m not. …”
Art Lortie
January 7th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
And from a book review column published in Time Magazine for May 30, 1949:
“The four founding fathers of ‘science fiction’ are generally
acknowledged to be Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
and H. G. Wells. In the U.S., Will F. Jenkins, a 27-year veteran, who
also writes under the pen name of Murray Leinster, is regarded as the
dean of writers in the field. Best of the lot, according to expert
editors, are Robert Heinlein and A. E. van Vogt.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888030,00.html
A tip of the hat to Kyle McAbee of the FictionMags group for being the first to find this.
March 5th, 2014 at 1:27 pm
Will F. Jenkins, who wrote the sci-fi classics, “First Contact,” “Sidewise in Time,” “The Brain Stealers,” “Time Tunnel,” and hundreds of other stories was one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. (2.) I knew him well, and out of that friendship came my “The Last Murray Leinster Interview,” published by Damon Persiani’s Waves Press in 1982. (3.) People forget that Jenkins/Leinster also “invented front projection for motion pictures,” and the movies were never the same. In fact, Universal is currently planninga big sci-fi movie from one of his greatest stories, though the family and heirs have requested that I not give the name of the picture until after Universal makes an announcement in 2015.(4.) Even Heinlein called Leinster “the Dean of Science Fiction” and he certainly deserved the Hugo for one of the best science fiction stories ever written. (5.)”The Life of Murray Leinster” has recently been published by McFarland, and I recommend it to everyone. He was a great-and-wonderful writer, with not one bit of vanity or conceit. (6.) I only hope that more films will be produced from his backlog of stories, such as “A Logic Named Joe,” which anticipated the coming of the internet fifty years before it actually happened. (7.) Quiet, professor-like in his habits, he wore a white shirt, coat and tie each day while he wrote. He considered ‘sci-fi’ writing as a business, but it was a business he loved with all his heart. Generous to a fault, Will F. Jenkins/Murray Leinster should be treated with the greatest of respect. He gave advancement to science fiction, and encouraged all the rest who came after him.
March 5th, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Thanks for stopping by, Ronald. Leinster was one of the first science fiction authors I came across when I started reading ASTOUNDING SF on a regular basis, back around 1959. I wish there were more writers like him today.