<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Frank Herbert, one of the best known and most influential science fiction writers of the late twentieth century, was born in Tacoma, Washington on October 8, 1920. Herbert knew early on that he wanted to be a writer, and lied about his age in 1939 to get a job as a writer with the Glendale Star newspaper. After serving with the US Navy in World War II, Herbert spent a few years pursuing a college degree, but left without graduating and returned to journalism. In the 1950’s he began writing science fiction, selling short fiction to magazines such as Startling Stories. His first novel, The Dragon in the Sea, was published in 1955, and used a submarine as a vehicle for exploring sanity and the fragility of the human mind. These themes of mental alteration and human intellectual development would figure strongly in his later writing, particularly in his seminal work, the novel Dune.

Herbert began researching Dune in 1959; according to him, the idea grew out of research he’d compiled for a magazine article on sand dunes. The novel took six years to complete, and in the end was much longer than was commercially acceptable for a science fiction novel of that period. The story was first serialized in Analog magazine in two parts, in 1963 and 1965, and subsequently published by Chilton. It quickly became a critical success, winning both the Nebula Award and Hugo Award. Following the success of Dune, Herbert continued the Dune saga with five more books. In 1984 filmmaker David Lynch adapted Dune into a motion picture.

By the time of his death on February 11, 1986, Herbert had written more than twenty novels and numerous short stories, but none received the critical attention and cult popularity of Dune. His son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have recently drawn on Herbert’s notes and unfinished manuscripts to continue the Dune saga, with much commercial success.

External Links

Link to information on Frank Herbert, including a bibliography.