James Gunn
CSSF Director

    jgunn@ku.edu

James Gunn was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1923. He received his B.S. degree in journalism in 1947 after three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and his M.A. in English in 1951, both from the University of Kansas. He also did graduate work in theater at KU and Northwestern.

News: James Gunn is named "Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master." Read the story here.

Gunn has worked as an editor of paperback reprints, as managing editor of KU alumni publications, as director of KU public relations, as a professor of English, and now is professor emeritus of English and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction. He won national awards for his work as an editor and a director of public relations. He was awarded the Byron Caldwell Smith Award in recognition of literary achievement and the Edward Grier Award for excellence in teaching, was president of the Science Fiction Writers of America for 1971-72 and president of the Science Fiction Research Association from 1980-82, was guest of honor at many regional SF conventions, including SFeracon in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, and Polcon, the Polish National SF convention, in Katowice; was presented the Pilgrim Award of SFRA in 1976, a special award from the 1976 World SF Convention for Alternate Worlds, a Science Fiction Achievement Award (Hugo) by the 1983 World SF Convention for Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction, the Eaton Award in 1992 for lifetime achievement, and named Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2007; was a KU Mellon Fellow in 1981 and 1984; and served from 1978-80 and 1985-present as chairman of the Campbell Award jury to select the best science-fiction novel of the year. He has lectured in Denmark, China, Iceland, Japan, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union for the U.S. Information Agency.

    
James Gunn's Birthday cake from 2004:    
"The uninspected belief is not worth holding," Jim's take    
on the the old saying, "The uninspected life is not worth living."    

Gunn started writing SF in 1948, was a full-time freelance writer for four years, and has had nearly 100 stories published in magazines and books; most of them have been reprinted, some as many as a dozen times. He is the author of 26 books and the editor of 10; his master's thesis was serialized in a pulp magazine. Four of his stories were dramatized over NBC radio's "X Minus One"; "The Cave of Night" was dramatized on television's Desilu Playhouse in 1959 as "Man in Orbit"; and The Immortals was dramatized as an ABC-TV "Movie of the Week" in 1969 as "The Immortal" and became an hour-long series in 1970-71. His stories and books have been reprinted in Australia, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Scandinavia, South America, Spain, Taiwan, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia.

Published Books

• This Fortress World, 1955 (Gnome), 1957 (Ace), 1979 (Berkley)
• Star Bridge (with Jack Williamson), 1955 (Gnome), 1956, 1961 (Ace), 1977 (Berkley), 1982 (Del Rey), 1989 (MacMillan)
• Station in Space, 1958 (Bantam), 1999 (e-reads)
• The Joy Makers, 1961 (Bantam), 1964 (SF Book Club), 1971 (Bantam), 1976 (Panther), 1984 (Crown), 1997 (Buccaneer)
• The Immortals, 1962, 1968 (Bantam), 1979 (Pocket)
• Future Imperfect, 1964 (Bantam), 1992 (e-reads)
• Man and the Future, (editor), 1968 (University Press of Kansas)
• The Witching Hour, 1970 (Dell)
• The Immortal, 1970 (Bantam)
• The Burning, 1972 (Dell)
• Breaking Point, 1972 (Walker), 1973 (DAW)
• The Listeners, 1972 (Scribner's), 1972 (SF Book Club), 1974 (NAL), 1985 (Del Rey), 1991 (Easton Press), 2004 (BenBella)
• Some Dreams are Nightmares, 1974 (Scribner's)
• The End of the Dreams, 1975 (Scribner's)
• Nebula Award Stories Ten (editor), 1975 (Harper & Row), 1976 (Berkley)
• Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction, 1975 (Prentice-Hall), 1976 (A&W Visual Library), 1976 (Quality PB Book Club)
• The Magicians, 1976 (Scribner's), 1980 (NAL)
• Kampus, 1977 (Bantam), 1986 (Easton)
• The Road to Science Fiction; From Gilgamesh to Wells (editor), 1977 (NAL)
• The Road to Science Fiction #2: From Wells to Heinlein (editor), 1979 (NAL)
• The Road to Science Fiction #3: From Heinlein to Here (editor), 1979 (NAL)
• The Road to Science Fiction #4: From Here to Forever (editor), 1982 (NAL)
• The Dreamers, 1981 (Simon & Schuster), 1982 (as The Mind Masters) (Pocket)
• Isaac Asimov: The Foundation of Science Fiction, 1982 (Oxford).
• Tiger! Tiger!, 1984 (Drumm)
• Crisis!, 1986 (Tor)
• The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (editor), 1988 (Viking Penguin)
• Inside Science Fiction, 1992 (Borgo)
• The Best of Astounding: Classic Short Novels from the Golden Age of Science Fiction (editor), 1992 (Carroll & Graf)
• The Unpublished Gunn, Part One, 1992 (Drumm)
• The Unpublished Gunn, Part Two, 1996 (Drumm)
• The Joy Machine (1996, Pocket)
• The Road to Science Fiction #5: The British Way, 1998 (White Wolf)
• The Road to Science Fiction #6: Around the World, 1998 (White Wolf)
• Human Voices, 1999 (Henan People's Publishing House)
• The Science of Science-Fiction Writing, 2000 (Scarecrow)
• The Millennium Blues, 2001 (E-reads)
• Human Voices, 2002 (Five Star Books)
• The Road to Science Fiction; From Gilgamesh to Wells (editor), 2002 (Scarecrow)
• The Road to Science Fiction #2: From Wells to Heinlein (editor), 2002 (Scarecrow)
• The Road to Science Fiction #3: From Heinlein to Here, 2002 (Scarecrow)
• The Road to Science Fiction #4: From Here to Forever, 2003 (Scarecrow)
• The Immortals (revised and expanded edition), 2004 (Pocket)
• Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction (with Matthew Candelaria),
  2005 (Scarecrow)
• Gift from the Stars, 2005 (Easton Press)
• Inside Science Fiction: Second Edition, 2006 (Scarecrow)

KU mailing address:

English Department
University of Kansas
Wescoe Hall
1445 Jayhawk Blvd, Room 3116
Lawrence Kansas 66045-7590

Email address: jgunn@ku.edu 

Office address: Room 3085, Wescoe Hall

Go to this page to read about CSSF Associate Director Chris McKitterick.
Go to this page to read about CSSF Associate Director Kij Johnson.
Go to this page to read about AboutSF Volunteer Coordinator Nate Williams.