Everything about Spider Robinson totally explained
Spider Robinson (born
November 24,
1948) is an
American-born Canadian Hugo and
Nebula award winning
science fiction author. Spider states that the internet rumors of his name being, or having been, Paul Robinson are incorrect. However, an old friend from college recalls that Paul was, in fact, Spider's name at birth.
Biography
Born in the
Bronx,
New York City, Robinson attended Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary, followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years at the
State University of New York in the 1960s, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English. While at Stony Brook, Spider earned a reputation as a great entertainer at campus coffeehouses and gatherings, strumming his guitar and singing in harmony with his female partner. In his 20s, he "spent several years in the woods, deliberately trying to live without technology."
In 1975 he married his wife Jeanne, a dancer and
Soto Zen monk; they've a daughter Terri, who once worked for
Martha Stewart.
He has lived in Canada for the past 30 years, primarily in the provinces of
Nova Scotia and
British Columbia. He formerly lived in "an upscale district of
Vancouver for a decade," and has lived on
Bowen Island since approximately 1999.
He became a Canadian citizen in 2002, retaining his American citizenship.
Writing history
His pen name may be attributed to his slender build as a youth as well as his public admiration of
Minneapolis-based musician
Spider John Koerner.
He made his first short-story sale in 1972 to
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact magazine. The story, "The Guy With The Eyes", was set in a bar called Callahan's Place; Robinson would, off-and-on, continue to write stories about the denizens of Callahan's into the 21st century.
After having made several short-story sales to Analog,
Galaxy Science Fiction magazine and others, Robinson worked as a book reviewer for Galaxy magazine during the mid-to-late
1970s and later contributed book reviews to the original anthology series
Destinies.
Robinson's first published novel,
Telempath (1976), was an expansion of his
Hugo award-winning novella "By Any Other Name". The first edition had cover art by 'Powers'.
Over the following three decades, Robinson on average released a book a year, including short story anthologies.
In 1996–2005, he served as a columnist in the Op-Ed section (and briefly in the technology section) of the
Globe and Mail.
In 2004, he pronounced himself "overjoyed" to begin working on a lengthy 1955 novel outline by the late
Robert A. Heinlein in order to expand it into a novel, thus making it a collaborative effort. The book, titled
Variable Star, was released on
September 19,
2006. In many of his past writings Robinson has made his admiration for Heinlein very clear; in an afterword to
Variable Star he tells the story of how on his first visit to a public library a librarian named Ruth Siegel "changed my life completely" by sizing up the child in front of her and handing him a copy of the
Heinlein juvenile novel
Rocket Ship Galileo, after which "the first ten books I ever read in my life were by Robert Heinlein, and they were all great."
Robinson is also an admirer of mystery writer
John D. MacDonald. Lady Sally McGee from the
Callahan's series is apparently named in honor of Travis McGee, the central character in MacDonald's mystery novels. The lead character in
Lady Slings The Booze frequently refers to Travis McGee as a role model. In
Callahan's Key the patrons make a visit to the marina near
Fort Lauderdale where the
Busted Flush was usually moored in the McGee series. In the photos section of Robinson's official website is a photo, taken by Jeanne, of Spider "at the address (now demolished) of 'The Busted Flush,' home of John D. MacDonald’s immortal character Travis McGee: Slip F-18, Bahia Mar Marina, Fort Lauderdale FL."
Similarly important to Robinson is writer
Donald E. Westlake and Westlake's most famous character, John Archibald Dortmunder.
Between the end of Chapter 5 and the start of Chapter 6 in Robinson's novel
Lifehouse (1997) is a list of the aliases used by a con man character, containing an impressive number of cultural references (including McGee, Dortmunder, and several Heinlein characters, plus other SF and popular fiction allusions). One subtlety is the inclusion in the list of
aliases that were aliases for other people, either real or fictional:
James Tiptree, Jr, the pen name used by SF writer Alice Sheldon, and "Sebastian Tombs," which was an alias often adopted by the character "
Simon Templar" in many novels by
Leslie Charteris.
Robinson's stance may be described as humanistic and humorous. He has frequently encouraged a positive attitude towards world issues, claiming that a pessimistic world view will yield pessimistic results. Frequently in his writing, the conflicts center around a science fiction issue with a human solution, following
Theodore Sturgeon's definition of a good science fiction story.
Published works
Stand-alone novels
The Deathkiller Trilogy
Mindkiller (1982)
Time Pressure (1987)
Lifehouse (1997)
The Stardance Trilogy
Written in collaboration with his wife, Jeanne Robinson.
Stardance (1979)
Starseed (1991)
The Star Dancers (1997) (omnibus edition of Stardance and Starseed)
Starmind (1995)
The Callahan's Series
Callahan's Place
- Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (1977)
- Time Travelers Strictly Cash (1981) (contains several non-Callahan's stories as well)
- Callahan's Secret (1986)
- Callahan and Company (1988) - (omnibus edition of Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, Time Travelers Strictly Cash, and Callahan's Secret)
- The Callahan Chronicals (1997) - (retitled republication of Callahan and Company)
Lady Sally's
- Callahan's Lady (1989)
- Lady Slings the Booze (1992)
- Kill the Editor (1991) - (an excerpt from Lady Slings the Booze, published in a special edition)
Mary's Place
- The Callahan Touch (1993)
- Callahan's Legacy (1996)
The Place
- Callahan's Key (2000)
- Callahan's Con (2003)
Off the Wall at Callahan's (1994) - (a collection of quotes from other books in the series)
Short story collections
Antinomy (1980)
The Best of All Possible Worlds (1980) - (collection of works by other authors edited and introduced by Robinson)
Melancholy Elephants (1984 - Canada; 1985 - United States)
True Minds (1990)
User Friendly (1998)
By Any Other Name (2001)
God Is an Iron and Other Stories (2002)
Discography
Belabouring the obvious (2000)
Collected Essays
The Crazy Years: Reflections of a Science Fiction Original (2004), a collection of his articles for the Globe and Mail
Awards
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (1974)
Hugo awards for:
- best novella (1977) By Any Other Name (later expanded into Telempath)
- best novella (1978) Stardance (with Jeanne Robinson)
- best short story (1983) Melancholy Elephants.
Nebula award for:
- best novella (1977) Stardance (with Jeanne Robinson).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Spider Robinson'.
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