Editing R. A. Lafferty

{{Short description|American writer}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2024}}{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = R. A. Lafferty
| image = R. A. Lafferty, in his library (cropped).jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Lafferty in his library in 1998<!--Photo by Keith Purtell.-->
| pseudonym =
|birth_name=Raphael Aloysius Lafferty
| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|11|7|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Neola, Iowa]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2002|3|18|1914|11|7|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[Broken Arrow, Oklahoma]], U.S.
| occupation = Novelist, short story author
| genre = [[Science fiction]], [[Fantasy]]
| notableworks =''Aurelia'', ''Past Master'', ''Space Chantey'', ''Nine Hundred Grandmothers''
}}

'''Raphael Aloysius "R. A." Lafferty''' (November 7, 1914{{spaced ndash}}March 18, 2002) was an American [[science fiction]] and [[fantasy]] writer known for his original use of [[language]], [[metaphor]], and [[narrative structure]].<ref>[[Gene Wolfe]] wrote in an introduction to ''Episodes of the Argo'' that ''"[Lafferty may be] the most original writer in the history of literature"''; [[Michael Swanwick]] has written that ''"if there were no Lafferty, we would lack the imagination to invent him"'' (quoted on the back cover of the original edition of ''Lafferty in Orbit''); [[Neil Gaiman]] said that ''"[Lafferty's] stories are without precedent"''; and [[Harlan Ellison]] wrote that ''"Lafferty defies categorization; his work is unlike anyone else's"''.</ref> Lafferty also wrote a set of four autobiographical novels, a history book, and several novels of historical fiction.

==Biography==
{{Moresources|section|date=October 2022}}
Lafferty was born on November 7, 1914, in [[Neola, Iowa]]<ref name="NYTObit"/> to devoutly [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] parents, Hugh David Lafferty, a broker dealing in oil leases and royalties, and Julia Mary ({{nee}} Burke), a teacher. He was born the youngest of five siblings. His first name, Raphael, derived from the day on which he was expected to be born (the Feast of [[Raphael (archangel)|St. Raphael]]). When he was 4, his family moved to [[Perry, Oklahoma]].<ref name="NYTObit"/>

He graduated from [[Cascia Hall Preparatory School|Cascia Hall]],<ref name="Mar 2002">"Sci-fi author R.A. Lafferty rites set", ''[[Tulsa World]]'', March 21, 2002. Accessed March 31, 2010.</ref> and came of age in the early years of the [[Great Depression]]. He later attended night school at the [[University of Tulsa]] for two years starting in 1933, mostly studying Math and German, but left before graduating. He then began to work for Clark Electric Co. in [[Tulsa]] and, during this period (1939–42), he attended the International Correspondence School. Per ''[[The New York Times]]'', "He taught himself [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] in order to read the [[New Testament]] in the original."<ref name="NYTObit"/>

He enlisted in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] in 1942. After training in [[Texas]], [[North Carolina]], [[Florida]], and [[California]], he was sent to the [[South Pacific Area]], serving in [[Australia]], [[New Guinea]], [[Morotai]] and the [[Philippines]]. When he left the Army in 1946, he had become a 1st Sergeant serving as a [[Staff Sergeant#United States military|staff sergeant]] and had received an [[Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal]].<ref> [https://web.archive.org/web/20041025093113/https://www-perscom.army.mil/tagd/tioh/Awards/ASIATIC-PACIFIC1.html Awards], perscom.army.mil. Accessed October 1, 2022.</ref> He never married and lived most of his life in Tulsa with his sister, Anna Lafferty.<ref name="NYTObit"/>

Lafferty did not begin writing until the 1950s, but he wrote thirty-two novels and more than two hundred short stories, most of them at least nominally science fiction. His first published story was "The Wagons" in the ''New Mexico Quarterly Review'' in 1959. His first published science fiction story was "Day of the Glacier", in ''The Original Science Fiction Stories'' in 1960, and his [[debut novel]] was [[Past Master (novel)|''Past Master'']] in 1968.<ref name="NYTObit">{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |title=Rafael A. Lafferty, 87, Science Fiction Writer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/29/us/rafael-a-lafferty-87-science-fiction-writer.html?scp=15 |date=March 29, 2002 |access-date=March 31, 2010}}</ref> He followed it with ''Space Chantey'' (1968), a science fiction retelling of [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'', and ''[[Fourth Mansions]]'' (1969), inspired by [[Teresa of Ávila]].<ref name=SF/>

Until 1971, Lafferty worked as an [[Electrical engineering|electrical engineer]]. After that, he spent his time writing until around 1980, when his output declined due to a stroke. He stopped writing regularly in 1984.<ref name="Locus"/> In 1994, he suffered an even more severe stroke. He died on March 18, 2002, aged 87 in a nursing home in [[Broken Arrow, Oklahoma]]. His collected papers, artifacts, and ephemera were donated to the University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections and University Archives. Other manuscripts are housed in the [[University of Iowa]]'s Library special collections department.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lafferty, R.A (Raphael Aloysius) |url=https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/491886 |website=ArchivesSpace at the University of Iowa |access-date=11 November 2023}}</ref>

Lafferty's funeral took place at Christ the King Catholic Church in Tulsa, where he regularly attended daily Mass. He is buried at St. Rose Catholic Cemetery in Perry.<ref name="Mar 2002"/>

==Writing style==
In his 2006 short story collection ''[[Fragile Things]]'', [[Neil Gaiman]] includes a short story called "Sunbird" written in the style of Lafferty. In the introduction, he says this about Lafferty:<blockquote> There was a writer from Tulsa, Oklahoma (he died in 2002), who was, for a little while in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the best short story writer in the world. His name was R. A. Lafferty, and his stories were unclassifiable and odd and inimitable -- you knew you were reading a Lafferty story within a sentence. When I was young I wrote to him, and he wrote back.<br>"Sunbird" was my attempt to write a Lafferty story, and it taught me a number of things, mostly how much harder they are than they look....<ref>Introduction to ''Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders'' by Neil Gaiman, William Morrow Publisher (2006), pg. xxvii</ref></blockquote>

Gaiman and Lafferty had corresponded for several years during Gaiman's adolescence; he remembered Lafferty's letters as "filled with typical cock-eyed Lafferty humour and observations, wise and funny and sober all at once."<ref>"Lafferty", Neil Gaiman, ''Locus'', May 2002, pg. 68.</ref>

Per ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'': <blockquote>He has fairly been described as a writer of tall tales, as a cartoonist, as an author whose tone was fundamentally oral; his conservative Catholicism has been seen as permeating every word he wrote (or has been ignored); he has been seen as a ransacker of old Mythologies, and as a flippant generator of new ones; he clearly delighted in a vision of the world as being irradiated by conspiracies both godly and devilish, but at times paid scant attention to the niceties of plotting; he has been understood by some as essentially light-hearted and by others as a solitary, stringent moralist; he was technically inventive, but lunged constantly into a slapdash sublime only skittishly evocative, and only occasionally, of anything like the traditional Sense of Wonder; his skill in the deploying of various rhetorical narrative voices was manifest, but these voices were sometimes choked in baroque flamboyance. ... He and [[Gene Wolfe]] have more than a shared faith in common.<ref name=SF>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Lafferty, R.A.|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lafferty_r_a|year=2023|access-date=10 January 2024}}</ref></blockquote>

==Themes==
Lafferty's quirky prose<ref name="NYTObit"/> drew from traditional storytelling styles, largely from the [[Irish people|Irish]] and [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]], and his [[Shaggy dog story|shaggy-dog characters and tall tales]] are unique in science fiction. Little of Lafferty's writing is considered typical of the genre. His stories are closer to [[tall tale]]s than traditional science fiction and are deeply influenced by his [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] beliefs; ''[[Fourth Mansions]]'', for example, draws on ''The Interior Mansions'' of [[Teresa of Ávila]].

His writings, both topically and stylistically, are not easy to categorize. Plot is frequently secondary to other elements of Lafferty's writing. While this style has resulted in a loyal cult following, it causes some readers to give up reading his work. Not all of Lafferty's work was science fiction or fantasy. His novel ''[[Okla Hannali]]'' (1972), published by University of Oklahoma Press, tells the story of the [[Choctaw]] in [[Mississippi]], and after the [[Trail of Tears]], in [[Oklahoma]], through an account of the larger-than-life character Hannali and his large family. This novel was thought of highly by the novelist [[Dee Brown (novelist)|Dee Brown]], author of ''[[Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee]]'' (1970), who on the back cover of the edition published by the [[University of Oklahoma Press]], writes "The history of the Choctaw Indians has been told before and is still being told, but it has never been told in the way Lafferty tells it ... Hannali is a buffalo bull of a man who should become one of the enduring characters in the literature of the American Indian." He also wrote, "It is art applied to history so that the legend of the Choctaws, their great and small men, their splendid humor, and their tragedies are filled with life and breath."

"<nowiki>[Once a]</nowiki> French publisher nervously asked whether Lafferty minded being compared to [[G. K. Chesterton]] (another Catholic author), and there was a terrifying silence that went on and on. Was the great man hideously offended? Eventually, very slowly, he said: 'You're on the right track, kid,' and wandered away."<ref>From an [[SFX magazine]] column by [[David Langford]]; issue #92, June 2002.</ref>

==Awards and recognition==
Lafferty received [[Hugo Award]] nominations for ''Past Master'', "Continued on Next Rock", "Sky", and "Eurema's Dam", the last of which won the Best Short Story Hugo in 1973 (shared with [[Frederik Pohl]] and [[Cyril M. Kornbluth]]'s "The Meeting").<ref>[http://worldcon.org/hy.html#73] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120190123/http://www.worldcon.org/hy.html|date=2013-01-20}}</ref>

He received [[Nebula Award]] nominations for "In Our Block", "Slow Tuesday Night", ''Past Master'', ''Fourth Mansions'', "Continued on Next Rock", "Entire And Perfect Chrysolite", and ''The Devil is Dead''. He never received a Nebula award.<ref name="Locus"/>

His collection ''Lafferty in Orbit'' was nominated for a [[World Fantasy Award]], and in 1990, Lafferty received a World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. His 1992 collection ''Iron Tears'' was also a finalist for the [[Philip K. Dick Award]].<ref name="Locus"/> In 2002, he received the [[Cordwainer Smith]] Foundation's Rediscovery award.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/lafferty.htm|title = R. A. Lafferty, winner of the 2002 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award}}</ref>

The [[Oklahoma Department of Libraries]] granted him the [[Arrell Gibson]] Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.odl.state.ok.us/ocb/pastgib.htm|title = OK Dept. Of Libraries – working to preserve history, expand knowledge, and enrich lives}}</ref>

''[[Fourth Mansions]]'' was also named by [[David Pringle]] as one of his selections for ''[[Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels]]''.

==Selected works==
{{onesource|section|date=October 2022}}
Lafferty's work is represented by [[Virginia Kidd]] Literary Agency,<ref>[http://www.sfwa.org/News/kidd.htm "Virginia Kidd (1921–2003)"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930152501/http://www.sfwa.org/News/kidd.htm |date=2007-09-30 }}</ref> which holds a cache of his unpublished manuscripts.<ref name=Locus>"R.A. Lafferty (1914–2002), ''Locus'', May 2002, p.9, 68.</ref> This includes over a dozen novels, such as ''In The Akrokeraunian Mountains'' and ''Iron Tongue of Midnight'', as well as about eighty short stories and a handful of essays.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2016/03/paul-di-filippo-reviews-r-a-lafferty/| title = Paul Di Filippo reviews R.A. Lafferty| date = March 18, 2016}}</ref>

===Novels===
====Science fiction====
* ''[[Past Master (novel)|Past Master]]'' (1968); Hugo Award nominee, 1969; Nebula Award nominee 1968
* ''[[The Reefs of Earth]]'' (1968)
* ''[[Space Chantey]]'' (1968); a retelling of the ''[[Odyssey]]'' in SF terms
* ''[[Fourth Mansions]]'' (1969); Nebula Award nominee, 1970
* ''[[The Devil is Dead]]'' (1971); Nebula Award nominee, 1972 [Second chronologically in The Devil is Dead trilogy]
* ''[[Arrive at Easterwine: The Autobiography of a Ktistec Machine]]'' (1971)
* ''[[Not to Mention Camels]]'' (1976)
* ''[[Archipelago (novel)|Archipelago]]'' (1979); [First chronologically in The Devil is Dead trilogy]
* ''[[Aurelia (novel)|Aurelia]]'' (1982); Philip K. Dick Award nominee, 1982
* ''[[Annals of Klepsis]]'' (1983)
* ''[[Serpent's Egg (novel)|Serpent's Egg]]'' (1987)
* ''[[East of Laughter]]'' (1988)
* ''[[How Many Miles to Babylon? (1989 novel)|How Many Miles to Babylon?]]'' (1989)
* ''[[The Elliptical Grave]]'' (1989)
* ''[[Dotty (novel)|Dotty]]'' (1990)
* ''[[More Than Melchisedech]]'' (1992); [Third chronologically in The Devil is Dead trilogy, consists of three novels]
** ''[[Tales of Chicago]]''
** ''[[Tales of Midnight]]''
** ''[[Argo (novel)|Argo]]''
* ''[[Sindbad: The Thirteenth Voyage]]'' (1989)

====Other====

* ''[[The Flame is Green]]'' (1971); [First in the unfinished Coscuin Chronicles]
* ''[[Okla Hannali]]'' (1972)
* ''[[Half a Sky]]'' (1984) [Second in the unfinished Coscuin Chronicles]

===Collections===

* ''[[Nine Hundred Grandmothers]]'' (1970)
* ''[[Strange Doings]]'' (1972)
* ''[[Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to Add?]]'' (1974)
* ''[[Funnyfingers & Cabrito]]'' (1976)
* ''[[Apocalypses (collection)|Apocalypses]]'' (1977)
* ''[[Golden Gate and Other Stories]]'' (1982)
* ''[[Through Elegant Eyes]]'' (1983)
* ''[[Ringing Changes]]'' (1984)
* ''[[The Early Lafferty]]'' (1988)
* ''[[The Back Door of History]]'' (1988)
* ''[[Strange Skies]]'' (1988); poems
* ''[[The Early Lafferty II]]'' (1990)
* ''[[Episodes of the Argo]]'' (1990)
* ''[[Lafferty in Orbit]]'' (1991); World Fantasy Award nominee, 1992
* ''[[Mischief Malicious (And Murder Most Strange)]]'' (1991)
* ''[[Iron Tears]]'' (1992); Philip K. Dick Award nominee, 1992
* ''[[The Man Who Made Models – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 1]]'' (2014)
* ''[[The Man With the Aura – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 2]]'' (2015)
* ''The Man Underneath – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 3'' (2015)
* ''The Man With The Speckled Eyes – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 4'' (2017)
* ''The Man Who Walked Through Cracks – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 5'' (2018)
* ''The Man Who Never Was – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 6'' (2021)
* ''Mad Man – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 7'' (2023)
* ''[[The Best of R. A. Lafferty]]'' (2019)

===Non-fiction===

* ''[[The Fall of Rome (Lafferty book)|The Fall of Rome]]'' (1971); reprinted in 1993 as ''Alaric: The Day the World Ended''
* ''[[It's Down the Slippery Cellar Stairs]]'' (1984)
* ''[[True Believers (book)|True Believers]]'' (1989)
* ''[[Cranky Old Man from Tulsa]]'' (1990)

===Short stories===
<!--imbedded externals are contrary to Wikipedia guidelines and will need to be turned into footnotes-->
* "Through Other Eyes" (''Future Science Fiction'', February 1960)
* "All the People" (''Galaxy Science Fiction'', April 1961)
* "The Weirdest World" (''Galaxy'', June 1961)
* "Aloys" (''Galaxy'', August 1961)
* "Rainbird" (''Galaxy'', December 1961)
* "Dream" (''Galaxy'', June 1962)
* "Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas" (''Galaxy'', December 1962)
* "What the Name of That Town?" (''Galaxy'', October 1964)
* "Slow Tuesday Night" (''Galaxy'', April 1965)
* "Among the Hairy Earthmen" (''Galaxy'', August 1966)
* "[[Land of the Great Horses]]" (''[[Dangerous Visions]]'', 1967)
* "Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne" (''Galaxy'', February 1967)
* "How They Gave It Back" (''Galaxy'', February 1968)
* "McGruder's Marvels" (''Galaxy'', July 1968)
* "[[Eurema's Dam]]" (''[[New Dimensions II]]'', 1972)
* "The World as Will and Wallpaper", the title a wordplay on ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'' (Future City, 1973)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?58355 |title=Title: The World as Will and Wallpaper |website=www.isfdb.org |access-date=November 7, 2021}}</ref>

==Archives==
In March 2011, it was announced in [[Locus (magazine)|''Locus'']] that the copyrights to 29 Lafferty novels and 225 short stories were up for sale.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/03/sf-tidbits-for-3311/ |title=SF Signal: SF Tidbits for 3/3/11 |access-date=2011-03-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307004152/http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/03/sf-tidbits-for-3311/ |archive-date=2011-03-07 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.sfsite.com/news/2011/03/02/lafferty-estate-for-sale/ Lafferty estate for sale], sfsite.com. Accessed October 1, 2022.</ref><ref>[http://locusmag.com/2011/Ads/digitallafferty.jpg Profile], locusmag.com. Accessed October 1, 2022.</ref> The literary estate was soon thereafter purchased by the magazine's nonprofit foundation, under the auspices of board member [[Neil Gaiman]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://thislandpress.com/11/05/2014/lafferty-lost-and-found/?read=complete|title = Lafferty Lost and Found &#124; This Land Press - Made by You and Me|accessdate=October 1, 2022}}</ref>

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |publisher=United Mythologies Press |year=1990 |isbn=9780921322160 |ol=1283704M |location=Weston, Ontario, Canada |title=Cranky Old Man from Tulsa: Interviews with R. A. Lafferty |author=R. A. Lafferty |date= |oclc=26768241 |id=092132216X}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-09-30 |title=Cranky Old Man from Tulsa: Interviews with R. A. Lafferty |url=http://demo.openlibrary.org/b/Cranky_old_man_Lafferty |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930181422/http://demo.openlibrary.org/b/Cranky_old_man_Lafferty |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |access-date=2024-12-28 |website=Open Library}}</ref>
* {{Citation |title=Unpublished Lafferty: 1 |url=http://www.nyrsf.com/2012/01/ |author=Andrew Ferguson |work=NYRSF |issue=281 |date=January 2012}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
;Digital editions
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/r-a-lafferty}}
** {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/r-a-lafferty/short-fiction|Display Name=An omnibus collection of Lafferty's public domain short fiction|noitalics=true}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=25720| name=R. A. Lafferty}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Raphael Aloysius Lafferty}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2321}}

;Fan pages
* [http://www.mulle-kybernetik.com/RAL R. A. Lafferty Devotional Page]
* [http://www.feastoflaughter.org/ Feast of Laughter], a semi-annual fanzine dedicated to R. A. Lafferty
<!--* [http://ralafferty.tumblr.com/ Continued on Next Rock – a chronological discussion of R. A. Lafferty's work sorted by the date written] by [[Andrew Ferguson]] on [[Tumblr]]
* [http://yetanotherlafferty.blogspot.com/ Yet Another Lafferty Blog]
* [http://failingevenbetter.blogspot.com/ "I WANT A DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF THE THING, "], A Lafferty Blog
*[http://antsofgodarequeerfish.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-introduction-to-r-lafferty.html The Ants of God Are Queer Fish – R. A. Lafferty Blog]-->

;Physical collections
* [https://utulsa.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/197 R. A. Lafferty papers, 1959–1997, Department of Special Collections and University Archives, McFarlin Library, The University of Tulsa]
* [https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/2/resources/589 University of Iowa's page on their special collection of his papers]

;Profiles
* [https://greatsfandf.com/Authors/Individual/LAFFERTY/CholfinOnLafferty.html "And They Took the Sky Off at Night"] – an appreciation of Lafferty by editor Brian Cholfin
* [http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1413276&lastnode_id=49412 Article] on Lafferty at [[Everything2]]
* [http://greatsfandf.com/AUTHORS/RALafferty.php "A Few Words About R. A. Lafferty"]
*[http://www.michaelswanwick.com/nonfic/duck.html  "Despair and the Duck Lady"], Profile of Lafferty by [[Michael Swanwick]]
*[http://www.blackgate.com/2011/03/27/ra-lafferty-an-attempt-at-an-appreciation/ "R.A. Lafferty: An Attempt at an Appreciation"]

;Other links
* {{isfdb name|name=R. A. Lafferty}}
* [http://www.ralafferty.org RALafferty.org], index to reviews and tributes
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051029092127/http://www.mulle-kybernetik.com/RAL/obit.html Collection of obituaries]
* [http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/lafferty.htm "R. A. Lafferty: Winner of the 2002 Cordwainer Smith Foundation "Rediscovery" Award]

{{R. A. Lafferty}}
{{Hugo Award Best Short Story 1961–1980}}
{{World Fantasy Award Life Achievement}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafferty, R.A.}}
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:2002 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American fantasy writers]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American science fiction writers]]
[[Category:Hugo Award–winning writers]]
[[Category:People from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Novelists from Iowa]]
[[Category:Novelists from Oklahoma]]
[[Category:American Roman Catholic writers]]
[[Category:United States Army soldiers]]
[[Category:World Fantasy Award–winning writers]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:American male short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Catholics from Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Cascia Hall Preparatory School alumni]]