Obituaries

Oakland Sci Fi Writer Jack Vance Dies at 96

Author of more than 60 books, multiple Hugo Award winner, Oakland resident since the 1940s.

Award-winning science fiction writer Jack Vance died at his Oakland home Sunday evening at the age of 96, the Associated Press reported Wednesday night.

Vance, whose legal name was John Holbrook, wrote more than 60 science fiction, fantasy and mystery books in his long career. He received a number of Hugo Awards from the World Science Fiction Society, most recently in 2010 for his memoir This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”).

He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1942 after writing one of his first science fiction stories for an English class there, according to his Wikipedia entry. He was born in San Francisco and had lived in Oakland since the 1940s.

Links:

Associated Press article in the Oakland Tribune.

Obituary in The Guardian.
Jack Vance Facebook page.

Wikipedia entry on Jack Vance.

Jack Vance tribute page.

Walden Pond Books local author webpage (at bottom of page).

New York Times Magazine profile, "The Genre Artist," May 15, 2009..


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