JOHN KILIAN HOUSTON BRUNNER

John K. H. Brunner was the great-grandson of the founder of the chemical company Brunner-Mond Ltd. He was born at Preston Crowmarsh in Oxfordshire, England on 24 September 1934.

He began writing fiction at an early age, and by 13 had his first rejection letter. In 1951, writing as Gill Hunt, he got his first novel accepted. He was 17. In later life he refused to acknowledge the novel; its title was Galactic Storm. In addition to Gill Hunt (which he shared with Dennis Hughes and E C Tubb), his pen names included: K. H. Brunner, Henry Crosstrees Jr., John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, and Keith Woodcott.

Attending school at Cheltenham, he turned down two offers of scholarship from Oxford and entered the RAF, serving as an officer from 1953 to 1955 — two reportedly unhappy years. He married Marjorie Rosamond Sauer on July 12, 1958, and turned to writing full time in that year. He was remarkably prolific. The archive of his works contains 97 typewritten manuscripts for novels, novellas and collections of short stories (83 published, 14 unpublished). There are 35 outlines or synopses for novels. Short story manuscripts number 261, of which 153 have been published. There are also collections of poetry and songs, for he was active in the folk-music scene. In addition there are works for television, film and radio presentations, and a number of translations (Brunner was a linguist who spoke x languages.)

On the non-fiction side the archive holds 261 manuscripts: 37 are speeches and non-fiction radio and TV broadcasts; the remainder are articles, reviews, and work related to writing workshops he led. In addition there are 94 crossword puzzles, various cyphers, quiz questions, notes, and proposals for anthologies of work by other authors.

His early works were firmly in the space-opera category. Later he began to employ more complicated structures for his novels and also infuse into them elements or themes relating to social issues. Brunner's best-known work is probably The Shockwave Rider (1975). It concerns a world dominated by networked computers, and introduced the term "worm" to mean a computer program that propagates itself around networks. Other well known titles of his include The Jagged Orbit, Age of Miracles, The Crucible of Time, The Sheep Look up, and Stand on Zanzibar. The latter, a novel dealing with overpopulation, earned him the Hugo and numerous other awards.

Politically, Brunner was a liberal or progressive (left-leaning). He was active in the nuclear disarmament movement in England and toured for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

His health began to decline in the 1980s, and worsened with the death of his wife in 1986. On September 27, 1991 he remarried, to Li Yi Tan. Attending the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, he died of a stroke on ?, 1995.

Novels by John Brunner (1934-1995)

1. Galactic Storm (as Gill Hunt; about global warming?)
   1951ISBN ?
2. The Brink (Gollancz, 192pp.; OCLC 10127243; not verified)
   1959ISBN ?
3. Echo in the Skull (Ace Double #D-385; revised in 1974 as Give Warning to the World)
   1959ISBN ?
4. The 100th Millennium (Ace Double #D-362; revised in 1968 as Catch a Falling Star)
   1959ISBN ?
5. The World Swappers
   1959ISBN ?
6. Threshold of Eternity (Ace Double #D-335; OCLC 4161250, 4161280)
   1959ISBN ?
7. The Atlantic Abomination (Ace Double #D-465 with David Grinnell's the Martian Missile "non-noticeable"
   1960ISBN ?
8. Sanctuary in the Sky
   1960ISBN ?
9. The Skynappers
   1960ISBN ?
10. Slavers of Space (revised in 1968 as Into the Slave Nebula)
    1960ISBN ?
11. Imprint of Chaos
    1960ISBN ?
12. I Speak for Earth (as Keith Woodcott)
    1961ISBN ?
13. Meeting at Infinity
    1961ISBN ?
14. The Ladder in the Sky (as Keith Woodcott)
    1962ISBN ?
15. Put Down This Earth (revised in 1963 as The Dreaming Earth)
    1962ISBN ?
16. Secret Agent of Terra (Ace Double #F-133; revised in 1969 as The Avengers of Carrig)
    1962ISBN ?
17. The Super Barbarians
    1962ISBN ?
18. The Astronauts Must Not Land (revised in 1973 as More Things in Heaven)
    1963ISBN ?
19. Castaways' World (Ace Double #F-242, with The Rites of Ohe; revised in 1974 as Polymath)
    1963ISBN ?
20. The Dreaming Earth (revision of Put Down This Earth)
    1963ISBN ?
21. Listen! The Stars! (revised in 1972 as The Stardroppers)
    1963ISBN ?
22. The Psionic Menace (as Keith Woodcott)
    1963ISBN ?
23. The Rites of Ohe
    1963ISBN ?
24. The Crutch of Memory
    1964ISBN ?
25. Endless Shadow
    1964ISBN ?
26. To Conquer Chaos
    1964ISBN ?
27. The Whole Man (also published as Telepathist)
    1964ISBN ?
28. Age of Miracles
    1965ISBN ?
29. The Altar on Asconel (Ace Double #M-123; also published as The Altar at Asconel in If)
    1965ISBN ?
30. The Day of the Star Cities (revised in 1973 as Age of Miracles)
    1965ISBN ?
31. Enigma from Tantalus (Ace Double #M-115 with The Repairmen of Cyclops)
    1965ISBN ?
32. The Long Result
    1965ISBN ?
33. The Martian Sphinx (as Keith Woodcott)
    1965ISBN ?
34. The Repairmen of Cyclops
    1965ISBN ?
35. Wear the Butcher's Medal
    1965ISBN ?
36. A Planet of Your Own
    1966ISBN ?
37. The Squares of the City (Ballantine #U6035; OCLC 1728952)
    Ballantine, Dec. 1965ISBN ?
38. Born Under Mars
    1967ISBN ?
39. The Productions of Time
    1967ISBN ?
40. Quicksand
    1967ISBN 978-0-879-97245-5
41. Bedlam Planet (Ace #G-709; OCLC 620481)
    1968ISBN ?
42. Catch a Falling Star (Ace, 09251; revision of The 100th Millennium)
    1968ISBN ?
43. Father of Lies
    1968ISBN ?
44. Into the Slave Nebula (revision of Slavers of Space)
    1968ISBN ?
45. Stand on Zanzibar (Doubleday; OCLC 442566)
    Sep. 1968ISBN ?
46. The Avengers of Carrig (Dell #0356; OCLC 2513001; revision of Secret Agent of Terra)
    Oct. 1969ISBN ?
47. A Plague on Both Your Causes (Max Curfew series; 192pp.; also published as Backlash)
    Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., July 1969ISBN 0340107537/978-0340107539
48. Double, Double
    1969ISBN ?
49. The Incestuous Lovers (as Henry Crosstrees, Jr.)
    1969ISBN ?
50. The Evil that Men Do
    1969ISBN ?
51. The Jagged Orbit (Ace SF Special ##38120)
    1969ISBN ?
52. Timescoop
    1969ISBN ?
53. The Gaudy Shadows
    1970ISBN ?
54. Good Men Do Nothing (Max Curfew series; 192pp.)
    Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., July 1970ISBN 0340106085/978-0340106082
55. Honky in the Woodpile (A novel in the Max Curfew series)
    Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., 1971ISBN ?
56. The Wrong End of Time (OCLC 216995)
    Doubleday, Dec. 1971ISBN ?
57. The Dramaturges of Yan
    1972ISBN ?
58. The Sheep Look Up (HC; OCLC 447474)
    Harper & Row, Aug. 1972ISBN 0-06-010558-5/978-0-06-010558-7
59. The Stardroppers (revision of Listen! The Stars!)
    1972ISBN ?
60. Age of Miracles (revision of The Day of the Star Cities)
    1973ISBN ?
61. More Things in Heaven (revision of The Astronauts Must Not Land)
    1973ISBN ?
62. The Stone That Never Came Down
    1973ISBN ?
63. Give Warning to the World (revision of Echo in the Skull)
    1974ISBN ?
64. Polymath (revision of Castaways' World)
    1974ISBN ?
65. Total Eclipse
    1974ISBN ?
66. Web of Everywhere (also published as The Webs of Everywhere)
    1974ISBN ?
67. The Shockwave Rider (HC; OCLC 1093694)
    Harper & Row, Mar. 1975ISBN 0-06-010559-3/978-0-06-010559-4
68. Interstellar Empire (DAW Books #UW208; OCLC 2976702; ** COLLECTION **)
    Sep. 1976ISBN ?
69. The Infinitive of Go
    1980ISBN ?
70. Players at the Game of People
    1980ISBN ?
71. Manshape (revision of Endless Shadow)
    1982ISBN ?
72. While There's Hope (24pp.)
    Keepsake Press, July 1982ISBN 0901924571/978-0901924575
73. The Crucible of Time
    1983ISBN ?
74. The Great Steamboat Race (568pp.; hard-to-find historical novel)
    Ballantine Books, Feb. 1983ISBN 0345258533/978-0345258533
75. The Tides of Time
    1984ISBN ?
76. The Shift Key (224pp.)
    Mandarin, 1987ISBN 41314920X/978-0413149206
77. The Days of March (publisher: Kerosina)
    Kerosina, 1988ISBN 0948893257/978-0948893254
78. Children of the Thunder (OCLC 19096678)
    Del Rey/Ballentine, Jan. 1989ISBN 0-345-31378-X/978-0-345-31378-2
79. A Case of Painter's Ear (Hardcover short fiction; 34pp. first publ 1987)
    Pulphouse Publishing, Jan. 1991ISBN 1-56146-502-X/978-1-56146-502-6
80. A Maze of Stars
    1991ISBN ?
81. Dark Voices 4 (horror)
    1992ISBN ?
82. Há Mais Coisas no Céu (Portuguese; Argonauta #419)
    Argonauta, 1992ISBN ?
83. Muddle Earth (Del Rey/Ballantine)
    Del Rey/Ballantine, Sep. 1993ISBN 0-345-37851-2

Note: Right now there is information missing from this list (primarily ISBNs). I have higher priorities at the moment. Also, this list does not include Brunner's short-story collections (12), poetry collections (4), omnibus novel collections (2), or songs. He also published an anthology of Rudyard Kipling's science fiction, as well as a significant amount of non-fiction. For additional details, see:

• http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/john-brunner/
• http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/0501brunner.html