World-famous American science fiction writer Franklin Patrick Herbert brought his novel "Dune" followed by five sequels. The cycle of narratives about a desert planet embodies complex and important ideas about the survival of mankind, the ecological balance, evolutionary changes, political and religious power. The first saga about Dune is the best-selling novel of the 20th century of the science fiction genre, and a series of novels is ranked among its classics.
However, Frank Herbert's bibliography is not limited to Dune chronicles and includes many short stories and novels, including non-fiction ones. In addition, the writer worked as a journalist, photographer, book reviewer, environmental consultant and lecturer.
early years
Frank Herbert was born in 1920, October 8, in the northwestern United States in the city of Tacoma. At the age of 18, due to the unfavorable situation in the family, he left home and moved to his uncle and aunt in Salem (Oregon). There he graduated from high school and in 1939 got a first job in the newspaper Glendale Star (Arizona). A year later, he returned to Salem, where he held various positions, including photography, at the Oregon State Press.
During the war years, Herbert served as a photographer for the US Navy for six months, after which he was commissioned for health reasons. His first marriage with Flora Parkinson took place in 1940 and five years later ended in divorce. The couple in 1942 had a daughter, Penny.
After the war, Herbert attended the University of Washington, where in 1946 he met his future second wife, Beverly Stewart, a fellow student in the class of creative essays. On June 20 of that year, Herbert and Beverly got married, later they had two sons: Brian Patrick (1947) and Bruce Calvin (1951). Brian Herbert, who later became the continuer of the Dune cycle and Frank Herbert's biographer, wrote that his father, wanting to study only what was interesting to him, did not graduate from the university. Herbert returned to journalism, first to Seattle's Star, then worked as an editor and writer for California Living and the San Francisco Examiner for ten years.
The formation of worldview
Frank published three works - Survival of Tricks (1945), Jonah and Yap (1946) and Yellow Fire (1947) - when the Herbert family moved to California in 1949 to work in the democratic newspaper Santa Roses The Press Democrat. Here the couple made friends with psychologists Irina and Ralph Sletteri, who introduced Herbert to the work of several thinkers, including Freud, Jung, Jaspers and Heidegger. The couple Sletteri also introduced the writer to the ideology of Zen Buddhism, which, combined with the influence of the works of prominent psychologists and philosophers, reflected not only on the views and beliefs, but also on the work of Frank Herbert. Being raised from childhood in accordance with Catholic principles, the writer later adopted Zen Buddhism as his religion.
The first science fiction works
In 1973, the writer, giving an interview, said that before he decided to write the first science fiction work, he read about ten years of literature of this genre. Among the favorite authors Herbert singled out G. Wells, Paul Anderson, Robert Heinlein, Jack Vance.
Herbert's first story in the form of a science fiction is “Looking for something?” - was published by the American popular magazine Stunning Stories in 1952. Three more of his works appeared in 1954 in other American science fiction magazines.
But Frank Herbert's real writing career began after the serial publication of the work in Under Pressure in Astounding in 1955-1956, known as Dragon in the Sea, which was then revised and published as a separate book in 1956. The story told of reason and insanity in the conditions of a 21st century submarine, predicting world conflicts over the consumption and production of oil. Typically, a novel is defined as psychological. It was the first writing, but still not-for-profit success. At the same time, Herbert worked as a speechwriter for Republican Senator Guy Cordon.
Other works of that period:
- "Operation Syndrome" (1954);
- “Gone Dogs” (1954);
- "Planet Pakrat" (1954);
- The Racial Race (1955);
- "Occupation" (1955);
- “Nothing” (1956);
- “Stop the fire” (1956);
- The Old Rambling House (1958);
- “Use the easy way” (1958);
- Matter of Traces (1958).
"Dune"
Herbert began working on material for this capacious work since 1959. After his wife returned to work as an advertiser, becoming the main breadwinner of the family throughout the 1960s, Frank Herbert allowed to devote all his time to a writing career. As he later admitted, the idea of ​​the novel came about when Frank was preparing a journal article about the sand dunes of the Oregon desert. Carried away, the writer received much more material than was required for the article, which was never written, but gave birth to a seed that grew up in the epoch-making novel “Dune”.
It took six years to collect material, conduct research, write and organize the text. It was much longer than anticipated to work on commercial science fiction of the time. The journal Analogue published a novel in two parts: in December 1963, The World of Dunes, and in 1965, The Prophet of Dunes. The book for printing in full was rejected by nearly twenty book publishers.
Sterling Lanier, editor of the Chilton Book Company, read all parts of Dune, and then offered writer Frank Herbert an upfront payment of $ 7,500 and future interest payments on the publication of the hardcover novel. For this collaboration, Herbert had to rewrite more than half the text. Soon, Dune surpassed any anticipated success by bringing Herbert the Nebula Award in the nominations for Best Romance of 1965 and Hugo in 1966. The work was the first novel in the genre of fiction, covering wide-ranging interconnected topics of a possible future for humanity, which became the basis for all subsequent works of Herbert Franklin.
Life after the Dune
The novel did not immediately become a bestseller. By 1968, Frank Herbert earned $ 20,000 on it, which, however, was a decent amount, far exceeding what science fiction writers of that time could count on. The publication of Dunes also opened up many opportunities for Frank, and he became a writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1969-1972), taught at the University of Washington (1970-1972), worked as a social and environmental consultant in Pakistan and Vietnam (1972), and worked director and photographer for the television show The Tillers (1973).
Creative peak
By the beginning of 1972, Herbert had completely stepped back from work in the newspaper and had become a science fiction writer exclusively. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, his works enjoyed incredible success. The writer literally lived in two houses. One was located in Hawaii, the other on the Olympic Peninsula in the port of Townsend, Washington, and was intended for a “visual environmental project.” For two decades, Herbert wrote many stories and continued the story of the planet Dune, writing books:
- The Messiah of Dune (1969);
- “Children of the Dune” (1976);
- “God the Emperor of Dune” (1981).
The most important works were also “Experiment Dosadi” (1977), “Creators of the Gods” (1972), “White Plague” (1982) and collaboration with Bill Ransom: “The Incident of Jesus”, “The Lazarus Effect” and “Ascension”, which became a sequel written by Herbert in 1965, the novel Destination: Void.
Frank also contributed in 1977 to aspiring science fiction writer Terry Brooks, giving a very positive review for his first novel, The Sword of Shannara.
Success and loss
In 1974, Beverly, the spouse of Herbert, underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. Having lived after this for ten years, at the very beginning of 1984 she died. The year was too busy, but brought the writer not only tragic events. Then the book “Heretics of the Dune” came out and David Lynch took up its adaptation. The writer acted as a screenwriter. There are many memorable photos of Frank Herbert with members of the crew while working on the film. But, despite large-budget production and high hopes, the film received mostly negative reviews in the United States, but was commercial success in European countries and Japan.
In 1985, the last two important events in Herbert's life took place: the publication of his final work, “The Head: Dune,” which connected many of the storylines of the saga, and the marriage of Theresa Shackleford. Frank died at the age of 65, on February 11, 1986, from a massive pulmonary embolism after recovering from an operation to remove a pancreatic cancer.
This ended the biography of Frank Herbert, but the saga of the planet Dune was continued by his son, Brian Herbert, with a series of trilogies and legends. And yet, it was the first novel about a desert planet that became the most famous and beloved by readers, a cult work of the 20th century.