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Katherine Anne MacLean (January 22, 1925 – September 1, 2019) was an American science fiction author best known for her
short fiction A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
of the 1950s which examined the impact of technological advances on individuals and society.


Profile

Damon Knight Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He is the author of "To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for ''The Twilight Zone''.Stanyard, ''Dimensions Behind th ...
wrote, "As a science fiction writer she has few peers; her work is not only technically brilliant but has a rare human warmth and richness."
Brian Aldiss Brian Wilson Aldiss (; 18 August 1925 – 19 August 2017) was an English writer, artist, and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for ...
noted that she could "do the hard stuff magnificently," while
Theodore Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 sh ...
observed that she "generally starts from a base of hard science, or rationalizes
psi phenomena Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near- ...
with beautifully finished logic." According to ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', she "was in the vanguard of those sf writers trying to apply to the soft sciences the machinery of the hard sciences". Her stories have been included in anthologies and a few have had radio and television adaptations. Three collections of her stories have been published. It was while she worked as a laboratory technician in 1947 that she began writing science fiction. Strongly influenced by
Ludwig von Bertalanffy Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (19 September 1901 – 12 June 1972) was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST). This is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, appl ...
's
General Systems Theory Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...
, her fiction has often demonstrated foresight about scientific advances. She died on September 1, 2019 at the age of 94.


Awards

MacLean received a Nebula Award in 1971 for her novella "The Missing Man" (''Analog'', March, 1971) and she was a Professional Guest of Honor at the first
WisCon WisCon or Wiscon, a Wisconsin science fiction convention, is the oldest, and often called the world's leading, feminist science fiction convention and conference. It was first held in Madison, Wisconsin in February 1977, after a group of fans at ...
in 1977. She was honored in 2003 by the
Science Fiction Writers of America The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. Whil ...
as an SFWA
Author Emeritus Author Emeritus was an honorary title annually bestowed by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America upon a living writer "as a way to recognize and appreciate senior writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy who have made signif ...
. In 2011, she received the
Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award The Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award honors underread science fiction and fantasy authors, with the intention of drawing renewed attention to the winners. The award was created in 2001 by the Cordwainer Smith Foundation in memory of the science ...
.


Collections

''The Diploids and Other Flights of Fancy'' (Avon, 1962), her first
short story collection A short story collection is a book of short stories and/or novellas by a single author. A short story collection is distinguished from an anthology of fiction, which would contain work by several authors (e.g., ''Les Soirées de Médan''). The s ...
, includes "The Diploids" (a.k.a. "Six Fingers"), "Feedback", "Pictures Don't Lie", "Incommunicado", "The Snow Ball Effect", "Defense Mechanism" and "And Be Merry" (a.k.a. "The Pyramid in the Desert"). Her second collection, ''The Trouble with You Earth People'' (Donning/Starblaze, 1980) contains "The Trouble with You Earth People", "The Gambling Hell and the Sinful Girl", "Syndrome Johnny", "Trouble with Treaties" (with Tom Condit), "The Origin of the Species", "Collision Orbit", "The Fittest", "These Truths", "Contagion", "Brain Wipe" and her Nebula Award-winning "The Missing Man".


Short stories and novelettes

* "Defense Mechanism" (1949). This tale of hidden telepathic abilities was Katherine MacLean's first story to see print when it was published in ''
Astounding Science Fiction ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...
'' (October, 1949). * "And Be Merry" (1950). Originally in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (February, 1950), this story was first anthologized in
Groff Conklin Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904 – July 19, 1968) was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories (co-edited with physician Noah Fabricant), wrote books on home improvemen ...
's ''Omnibus of Science Fiction'' (Crown, 1952) and has also been published under the title "The Pyramid in the Desert." In January 2006, MacLean reflected on the science behind the story: ::"And Be Merry" (Eat Drink and Be Merry for Tomorrow We Die) A lab biologist, female, takes advantage of her husband going off on an archeology trip, to use the privacy to experiment on herself for rejuvenation by a severe and dangerous method. Succeeding, she contemplates immortality, finding that safety from accidental death has become so valuable to her that she becomes a coward, cowering from all possible risk, seeing shelter in a hospital, and is only rescued from mindless panic by her husband finding her, realizing the source of her terror and rescuing her from immortality by claiming she has a slow growing tumor in an unreachable part of the body. ::Finding she has no chance of evading eventual death, she immediately loses her obsession with safety, becomes interested in biochemistry again, and invents a new theory. (New at the time.) Mutation from background radiation does not just strike the sperm and egg making chromosome changes in the embryo and mutated progeny, it also strikes the chromosomes in each cell of any living creature, damages and mutates them also, and produces cancer. This cannot be prevented. She called it "somatic mutation" and used the new concept of body deterioration by slow radiation damage (age) to underpin her rediscovered recklessness, and be happy. ::Even now most biotechs have not fully accepted the implication that every cell in the body can generate an entire copy of the person. But perhaps a copy will be changed and mutated for the worse by exposure to ambient radiation and other mutagens. Perhaps a cell needs to generate a placenta around it to develop into an entire body. Something like that is holding up the biochemists from successfully making copies of individuals from body or blood cells. Not for long! I wrote three more stories with novel genetic ideas before 1953. Some have not been followed up by scientists yet. * "Incommunicado" (1950). In this novelette about communication and computers, written by MacLean in 1947, she demonstrated an ability to foresee the future evolution of personal computers. Passages in this story anticipate such latter-day digital configurations as
Google Book Search Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
, Google Video Search, PDA devices, podcasting and portable music players. At a space station operated by a computer, the station's workers begin to unconsciously develop a musical rapport with their computer in a feedback loop. When published in the June 1950 issue of ''Astounding Science Fiction'', cover artist Miller contributed one of the more striking ''Astounding'' covers of the 1950s, blending an emotional musical performance with cyber technology. The story was reprinted a decade later in
Groff Conklin Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904 – July 19, 1968) was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories (co-edited with physician Noah Fabricant), wrote books on home improvemen ...
's anthology, '' Six Great Short Science Fiction Novels'' (Dell, 1960), followed by MacLean's collection, ''The Diploids'' (Avon, 1962). In January, 2006, MacLean recalled this incident, trying to gate-crash a convention of electronic engineers a few years after ''Incommunicado'' was published in 1950: ::In the 1930s and 1940s, scientists and boys planning to be scientists read ''Astounding'' (''Analog'') with close attention to the hottest most promising ideas and took them up as soon as they could get funded lab space. They did not openly express their gratitude to science fiction, because the funding depended on keeping claim to have originated the ideas they had put so much work into testing and verifying.... ::"I hastily looked around for a door to a lecture hall where I could sneak some listening time and get a line on current research, and be out of sight before the desk was reoccupied by the guardian of the gate.... ::Too late, a man built like a fullback in a business suit was bearing down on me. "I see you don't have your badge. May I have your name? I'll look it up in the registry...." ::"Katherine MacLean, I came in because I am interested in--" ::He interrupted. "Katherine MacLean! Are you that Katherine MacLean?" He gripped my hand and hung on. Who was that Katherine Maclean? Was I being mistaken for someone else? ::"Are you the Katherine MacLean who wrote 'Incommunicado'?" ::Speechless with relief, I nodded. I would not be arrested or thrown out if they would accept me as a science fiction writer. He kept his grip on my hand and turned around and bellowed to his group of chatting friends, "Guess who I've got here. The little woman who wrote 'Incommunicado'!" ::...I had not been aware that my playing with communication ideas would attract the attention of prestigious Bell Telephone researchers. I had left radio and wavelength theory to my Dad as one of his hobbies and learned early that I could get a nasty shock from playing with his wiring. I could not account for their enthusiasm. I went back to the typewriter and lost myself in the story again. ::The point is, that scientists not only read ''Astounding-Analog'', they were fans of the writers and understood all the Ideas, even the obscure Ideas that were merely hinted at. * "Feedback" (1951). A sociological setback occurs when conformity becomes a closed circle, prompting even more conformity; a teacher who speaks in favor of individuality is regarded as subversive. Originally in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (July, 1951). * "Syndrome Johnny" (1951). Published before it was even certain that DNA carried genetic information, this story is about a series of engineered
retroviral A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. Once inside the host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptas ...
plagues, initially propagated by
blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...
, that are genetically re-engineering the human race. First published in ''
Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...
'' (July, 1951). * "Pictures Don't Lie'" (1951). Radio contact with extraterrestrial ship arriving on Earth. Originally in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' (August, 1951), it was adapted to radio, television and comic books. The adaptation on the UK series '' Out of This World'' was telecast August 11, 1962. The EC Comics version of this story was "Chewed Out!", illustrated by
Joe Orlando Joseph Orlando (April 4, 1927 – December 23, 1998) was an Italian American illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades. He was the associate publisher of '' Mad'' and the vice president of DC Comics, ...
for '' Weird Science'' 12 (March–April 1952). In expanding the basic premise and adding comedic elements, scripter
Al Feldstein Albert Bernard Feldstein ( ; October 24, 1925 – April 29, 2014) was an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satire, satirical magazine ''Mad (magazine), Mad''. Aft ...
established the setting as
Blytheville, Arkansas Blytheville is the county seat and the largest city in Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States. It is approximately north of West Memphis. The population was 13,406 at the 2020 census, down from 15,620 in 2010. History Blytheville was foun ...
. On several occasions MacLean noted that she ranked EC's interpretation as superior to her own story. * "The Man Who Staked the Stars" (1952, as Charles Dye). A business mobster under investigation is slowly turned against himself by an internal doppelgänger. Originally in ''Planet Stories'' (July, 1952). This story is available online free in Project Gutenberg. * "The Snowball Effect" (1952). A sociology professor, challenged to prove his theories of the dynamic growth of organizations, rewrites the rules of a smalltown sewing circle to have "more growth drive than the Roman Empire." He is far more successful than he ever anticipated. Originally in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' (September, 1952), and adapted for the
X Minus One ''X Minus One'' is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that was broadcast from April 24, 1955, to January 9, 1958, in various timeslots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American a ...
radio series in 1956. * "Games" (1953). A boy becomes the characters in his make-believe games. Originally in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' (March, 1953). Available online * "The Diploids" (1953). In this novella, a young lawyer suspects he may be an alien because of certain physical and biochemical abnormalities but discovers that he is a commercial human embryonic cell line, sold for research and illegally grown to maturity. Originally in ''
Thrilling Wonder Stories ''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stor ...
'' (April, 1953). Also titled "Six Fingers." * "Cosmic Checkmate" (1958). This collaboration by MacLean and Charles V. De Vet, published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (March, 1958), was nominated for a 1959 Hugo. It was expanded as ''Second Game'' in 1962 and again in 1981. Two gamers play a multi-level game to determine whether Earth's civilization wins. * " Unhuman Sacrifice" (1958). Published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (March, 1958), reprinted in
Damon Knight Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He is the author of "To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for ''The Twilight Zone''.Stanyard, ''Dimensions Behind th ...
's anthology ''A Century of Science Fiction'' (1962). The attempts of a missionary to spread the word on an alien planet are frustrated by the aliens' life cycle. * "The Kidnapping of Baroness 5" (1995) Originally published in ''Analog''; republished in the anthologies ''Women of Other Worlds'' (edited by Helen Merrick & Tess Williams) and ''A Woman's Liberation'' (edited by Connie Willis and Sheila Williams). In a post-apocalyptic world, a geneticist struggles to help preserve and lengthen the lives of the genetically damaged descendants of the survivors of a genetic experiment to extend the human lifespan that went horribly wrong. Instead, with each generation, lifespan gets shorter, and as less and less knowledge is passed down to each succeeding generation, society has regressed to a feudal state. She fits into society by casting herself as a sort of "good witch" cum healer, passing off her medical expertise and her efforts to correct the damage to the human aging process as magic. * "Contagion" (1950). Originally published in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' (October 1950), reprinted in ''
Women of Wonder ''Women of Wonder: Science-fiction Stories by Women about Women'' is an anthology of twelve short stories and a poem edited by Pamela Sargent, published in 1975. The collection reprints work by female science fiction authors originally published f ...
'' (1975).


Novels

* ''The Man in the Bird Cage'' (1971) * ''Missing Man'' (1975). In a balkanized New York City, an engineer working for the city's disaster planning section has his inside knowledge exploited to cause disasters. The novel is a
fix-up A fix-up (or fixup) is a novel created from several short fiction stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as a frame s ...
of MacLean's three Rescue Squad stories, including the 1971
Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...
-winning novella of the same name. * ''Dark Wing'' (1979) with husband Carl West. In a world where medical knowledge has been outlawed, a young man discovers a medical kit, remnant of times past, which he uses to help those around him and to fight his way towards a better understanding of science and medicine.


Memoir

* For Martin Greenberg's ''Fantastic Lives: Autobiographical Essays by Notable Science Fiction Writers'' (Southern Illinois University Press, 1981) she wrote "The Expanding Mind," a memoir of her youth and the impact of science fiction on the mind of a young girl. * For Eric Leif Davin's ''Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965'', MacLean supplied a detailed description of her negotiations with John W. Campbell in regard to the publication of her earliest stories. Davin, Eric Leif. ''Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965'', Lexington Books, 2006."> Davin, Eric Leif. ''Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965'', Lexington Books, 2006.
/ref>


References


Listen to


''X Minus One'': "The Snowball Effect" (August 14, 1956)''X Minus One'': "Pictures Don't Lie" (October 24, 1956)
*Episode 4 of the podcas
''Buxom Blondes with Ray Guns''
(Hannah Wolfe, February 17, 2018) features two 1954 stories by Katherine MacLean.


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, Katherine 1925 births 2019 deaths People from Glen Ridge, New Jersey Writers from New Jersey 20th-century American novelists American science fiction writers American women short story writers American women novelists Nebula Award winners Women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American women University of Connecticut faculty