Editing Jack Vance (section)

==Work==
[[File:Cae-20-legendrekvater1975couverturegalaxiebis45.jpg|thumb|French edition of ''The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph'', illustrating "The Kokod Warriors".]]

Vance made his debut in print with "The World-Thinker", a 16-page story published by [[Sam Merwin Jr.|Sam Merwin]] in ''[[Thrilling Wonder Stories]]'', Summer 1945.<ref name=isfdb/> His lifetime output totals more than 60 books—perhaps almost 90.<ref name=sfhof-vance/> His work has been published in three categories: science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. Among Vance's earliest published work was a set of fantasy stories written while he served in the [[United States Merchant Marine|merchant marine]] during the war. They appeared in 1950, several years after Vance had started publishing science fiction in the pulp magazines, under the title ''[[The Dying Earth]]''.<ref>Vance's original title, used for the Vance Integral Edition, is ''Mazirian the Magician''.</ref>

Vance wrote many science fiction short stories in the late 1940s and through the 1950s, which were published in magazines. Of his novels written during this period, a few were science fiction, but most were mysteries. Few were published at the time, but Vance continued to write mysteries into the early 1970s. In total, he wrote 15 novels outside of science fiction and fantasy, including the extended outline, ''The Telephone was Ringing in the Dark'', published only by the VIE ([[Vance Integral Edition]]), and three books published under the [[Ellery Queen (house name)|Ellery Queen]] pseudonym.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/jack-vance-gz7hktrdpjw|title=Jack Vance}}</ref>  Some of these are not mysteries, such as ''Bird Isle'', and many fit uneasily in the category. These stories are set in and around his native San Francisco, except for one set in Italy and another in Africa. Two begin in San Francisco but take to the sea.

Many themes important to his more famous science fiction novels appeared first in the mysteries. The most obvious is the "book of dreams", which appears in ''[[Bad Ronald (novel)|Bad Ronald]]'' and ''The View from Chickweed's Window'', prior to being featured in ''[[The Book of Dreams (Vance novel)|The Book of Dreams]]''. The revenge theme is also more prominent in certain mysteries than in the science fiction (''The View from Chickweed's Window'' in particular). ''Bad Ronald'' was adapted to a TV film [[Bad Ronald|of the same name]] aired on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] in 1974, as well as a French production (''Méchant garçon'') in 1992; this and ''Man in the Cage'' are the only works by Vance to be made into film to date.
[[File:Galaxy 196208.jpg|thumb|right|Vance's Hugo Award-winning novella ''The Dragon Masters'' was the cover story on the August 1962 issue of ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'']]

Certain of the science fiction stories are also mysteries, penned using his full name John Holbrook Vance, three under the house [[pseudonym]] [[Ellery Queen (house name)|Ellery Queen]], and one each using the pseudonyms Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse.<ref name=isfdb/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.integralarchive.org/biblio-3.htm |title=All Title Index |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222112433/http://www.integralarchive.org/biblio-3.htm |archive-date=February 22, 2012 }}</ref> Some editions of his published works give his year of birth as 1920. In addition to the comic Magnus Ridolph stories, two major stories feature the effectuator Miro Hetzel, a futuristic detective, and ''Araminta Station'' is largely concerned with solving various murders. Vance returned to the "dying Earth" setting (a far distant future in which the sun is slowly going out, and magic and technology coexist) to write the [[picaresque]] adventures of the ne'er-do-well scoundrel [[Eyes of the Overworld|Cugel the Clever]], and those of the magician [[Rhialto the Marvellous]]. These books were written in 1963, 1978 and 1981. His other major fantasy work, ''Lyonesse'' (a trilogy comprising ''Suldrun's Garden'', ''[[The Green Pearl]]'', and ''Madouc''), was completed in 1989 and set on a mythological archipelago off the coast of France in the early [[Middle Ages]].

Vance's stories written for pulps in the 1940s and 1950s covered many [[List of science fiction themes|science fiction themes]], with a tendency to emphasize mysterious and biological themes (ESP, genetics, brain parasites, body switching, other dimensions, cultures) rather than technical ones. Robots, for example, are almost entirely absent, though the short story "The Uninhibited Robot" features a computer gone awry. Many of the early stories are comic. By the 1960s, Vance had developed a futuristic setting that he came to call the [[Gaean Reach]], a fictional region of space settled by humans. Thereafter, all his science fiction was, more or less explicitly, set therein.<ref name=isfdb/> The Gaean Reach per se is loose and expanding, old Earth (Gaia) being the center. Each planet has its own history, state of development and culture. Within the Reach conditions tend to be peaceable and commerce tends to dominate. At the edges of the Reach, out in the lawless Beyond, conditions are usually much less secure.

Vance influenced many writers in the genre. Most notably, [[Michael Shea (American author)|Michael Shea]] wrote a sequel to ''Eyes of the Overworld'', featuring Cugel the Clever, before Vance did one himself (called ''Cugel's Saga''). Vance gave permission, and the book by Shea went into print before Vance's. Shea's book, ''[[A Quest for Simbilis]]'', is entirely in keeping with the vision of Vance. Cugel is a complete rogue, who is nevertheless worthy of sympathy in always failing to achieve his goals.<ref>{{citation |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vl6gLmUNFRYC&pg=PA115 |title=Discovering Modern Horror Fiction II |chapter=The Grim Imperative of Michael Shea |author=Arthur Jean Cox|isbn=9781587150081 |date=December 1, 1988 |publisher=Wildside Press LLC }}</ref>

=== Literary influences ===
[[File:Amazing stories 196208.jpg|thumb|right|Vance's novella "Gateway to Strangeness" was the cover story in the August 1962 issue of ''[[Amazing Stories]]'', illustrated by [[Alex Schomburg]]. Under the title "Dust of Far Suns", it became the title piece in a Vance story collection in 1981]]
When asked about literary influences, Vance most often cited [[Jeffery Farnol]], a writer of adventure books, whose style of "high" language he mentions (the Farnol title ''Guyfford of Weare'' being a typical instance); [[P. G. Wodehouse]], an influence apparent in Vance's taste for overbearing aunts; and [[L. Frank Baum]], whose fantasy elements were directly borrowed by Vance (see ''The Emerald City of Oz'').<ref>articles in ''Cosmopolis''{{full citation needed |date=June 2012}}</ref> In the introduction to Dowling and Strahan's ''The Jack Vance Treasury'', Vance mentions that his childhood reading including [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]], [[Jules Verne]], [[Robert W. Chambers]], science fiction published by [[Edward Stratemeyer]], the magazines ''[[Weird Tales]]'' and ''[[Amazing Stories]]'', and [[Lord Dunsany]].<ref name="BioSketch"/> According to pulp editor Sam Merwin, Vance's earliest magazine submissions in the 1940s were heavily influenced by the style of [[James Branch Cabell]].<ref>Lin Carter, ''[[Imaginary Worlds – the Art of Fantasy|Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy]]'', New York: Ballantine Books, 1973, p. 151. SBN 345-03309-4-125. {{USD|1.25}}. {{ISBN|0-345-03309-4}}.</ref> Fantasy historian Lin Carter notes several probable lasting influences of Cabell on Vance's work, and suggests that the early "pseudo-Cabell" experiments bore fruit in ''The Dying Earth'' (1950).<ref>Carter, pp. 151–53.</ref>  Science fiction critic Don Herron<ref>''Jack Vance'', ''Writers of the 21st Century'' series, New York: Taplinger, 1980, p. 87 ff.</ref> cites [[Clark Ashton Smith]] as an influence on Vance's style and characters' names.

=== Characteristics and commentary ===
Vance's science fiction runs the gamut from stories written for pulps in the 1940s to multi-volume tales set in the space age. Scott Bradfield states that Vance "wrote about incomprehensibly far-off futures that weren’t driven by the splashy intergalactic military conflicts of his Golden Age predecessors, such as E.E. Doc Smith or Robert A. Heinlein. Instead, Vance’s futures are marked by rich, panoramic socioeconomic systems."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/155978/science-fictions-wonderful-mistakes |title=Science Fiction's Wonderful Mistakes |last= Bradfield|first= Scott|date= December 16, 2019|magazine=The New Republic |publisher=New Republic |access-date=November 15, 2021 |quote=}}</ref> While Vance's stories have a wide variety of temporal settings, a majority of them belong to a period long after humanity has colonized other stars, culminating in the development of a fictional region of interstellar space called the [[Gaean Reach]]. In its early phase, exhibited by the Oikumene of the [[Demon Princes]] series, this expanding, loose and pacific agglomerate has an aura of colonial adventure, commerce and exoticism. Later it becomes peace-loving and stolidly middle class.

Vance's stories are seldom concerned directly with war and the conflicts are rarely direct. If there are battles, such as in the slave revolt against the nobility at the end of ''[[The Last Castle (novella)|The Last Castle]]'', they are depicted in an abbreviated length, as Vance is more interested in the social and political context than the clashing of swords. Sometimes at the edges of the Reach or in the lawless areas of Beyond, a planet is menaced or craftily exploited. Some more extensive battles are described in ''The Dragon Masters'', ''The Miracle Workers'', and the ''Lyonesse Trilogy'', in which medieval-style combat abounds. His characters usually become inadvertently enmeshed in low-intensity conflicts between alien cultures; this is the case in ''[[Emphyrio]]'', the [[Planet of Adventure|Tschai]] series, the Durdane series, and the comic stories in ''Galactic Effectuator'', featuring Miro Hetzel. Personal, cultural, social, or political conflicts are the central concerns. This is most particularly the case in the Cadwal series, though it is equally characteristic of the three Alastor books, ''[[Maske: Thaery]]'', and, one way or another, in most of his science fiction novels.

Another way in which Vance expands the usually narrow focus of most speculative fiction writers is the extensive details ranging from the culture of language to food, music, and rituals. In ''[[The Languages of Pao]]'', after a planet with a passive, lazy and backwards culture is invaded and occupied, the planet's leader orders three new languages developed, to make his people more aggressive, industrious and inventive. In the short story "[[The Moon Moth]]", natives must master a number of musical instruments in order to communicate with each other. Spoken words are modulated to acquire different meanings, or may be said to be given full meaning (respect, derision or sarcasm), by means of the musical sounds. These details paint a far more detailed and complex picture of life and cultures in his books.

The "Joe Bain" stories (''The Fox Valley Murders'', ''The Pleasant Grove Murders'', and an unfinished outline published by the VIE) are set in an imaginary northern California county; these are the nearest to the classical mystery form, with a rural policeman as protagonist. ''Bird Isle'', by contrast, is not a mystery at all, but a Wodehousian idyll (also set near San Francisco), while ''[[The Flesh Mask]]'' or ''Strange People&nbsp;...'' emphasize psychological drama. The theme of both ''[[The House on Lily Street]]'' and ''Bad Ronald'' is solipsistic megalomania, taken up again in the Demon Princes cycle of science fiction novels.

Three books published under the [[Ellery Queen (house name)|house name Ellery Queen]] were written to editorial requirements and heavily revised by the publisher. (Volume 45 of The Vance Integral Edition contains the original text for the three Ellery Queen novels. Vance previously refused to acknowledge them for their degree of rewriting.) Four others reflect Vance's world travels: ''[[Strange People, Queer Notions]]'' based on his stay in Positano, Italy; ''The Man in the Cage'', based on a trip to Morocco; ''[[The Dark Ocean]]'', set on a merchant marine vessel; and ''[[The Deadly Isles]]'', based on a stay in [[Tahiti]].

The mystery novels reveal much about Vance's evolution as a science fiction and fantasy writer. He stopped working in the mystery genre in the early 1970s, except for science-fiction mysteries; see below. ''Bad Ronald'' is especially noteworthy for its portrayal of a trial-run for Howard Alan Treesong of ''The Book of Dreams''. The Edgar-Award-winning ''The Man in the Cage'' is a thriller set in North Africa at around the period of the French-Algerian war. ''A Room to Die In'' is a classic 'locked-room' murder mystery featuring a strong-willed young woman as the amateur detective. ''Bird Isle'', a mystery set at a hotel on an island off the California coast, reflects Vance's taste for farce.

Vance's two rural Northern California mysteries featuring [[Sheriff Joe Bain]] were well received by the critics. ''[[The New York Times]]'' said of ''The Fox Valley Murders'': "Mr. Vance has created the county with the same detailed and loving care with which, in the science fiction he writes as Jack Vance, he can create a believable alien planet." [[Dorothy B. Hughes]], in ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]'', wrote that it was "fat with character and scene". As for the second Bain novel, ''The New York Times'' said: "I like regionalism in American detective stories, and I enjoy reading about the problems of a rural county sheriff ... and I bless John Holbrook Vance for the best job of satisfying these tastes with his wonderful tales of Sheriff Joe Bain&nbsp;...".

Vance has also written mysteries set in his science fiction universes. An early 1950s short story series features Magnus Ridolph, an interstellar adventurer and amateur detective who is elderly and not prone to knocking anyone down, and whose exploits appear to have been inspired, in part, by those of [[Jack London]]'s South Seas adventurer, Captain David Grief. The "Galactic Effectuator" novelettes feature Miro Hetzel, a figure who resembles Ridolph in his blending of detecting and troubleshooting (the "effectuating" indicated by the title). A number of the other science fiction novels include mystery, spy thriller, or crime-novel elements: ''The Houses of Iszm'', ''Son of the Tree'', the Alastor books ''Trullion'' and ''Marune'', the Cadwal series, and large parts of the Demon Princes series.

According to writer [[Michael Chabon]], "Jack Vance is the most painful case of all the writers I love who I feel don’t get the credit they deserve. If ‘The Last Castle’ or ‘The Dragon Masters’ had the name [[Italo Calvino]] on it, or just a foreign name, it would be received as a profound meditation, but because he's Jack Vance and published in [[Amazing Stories|Amazing Whatever]], there's this insurmountable barrier."<ref name="Rotella">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/magazine/19Vance-t.html |title=The Genre Artist |last=Rotella |first=Carlo |date=July 15, 2009 |website=New York Times |access-date=March 8, 2020 }}</ref>

Vance fans developed a website called Totality (pharesm.org), which enables users to do electronic searches of the Vance Integral Edition texts.<ref name="Rotella"/>