/ Stars that died in 2023: John Christopher, British science fiction author (The Tripods, The Sword of the Spirits) died he was 89

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

John Christopher, British science fiction author (The Tripods, The Sword of the Spirits) died he was 89


Sam Youd known professionally as Christopher Samuel Youd, was a British writer, best known for science fiction under the pseudonym John Christopher, including the novel The Death of Grass and the young-adult novel series The Tripods died he was 89. He won the Guardian Prize in 1971[1] and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1976.
Youd also wrote under variations of his own name and under the pseudonyms Stanley Winchester, Hilary Ford, William Godfrey, William Vine, Peter Graaf, Peter Nichols, and Anthony Rye.[2][3]

(16 April 1922 – 3 February 2012)

Biography

Youd is an old Cheshire surname. Sam Youd was born in Huyton, Lancashire. He was educated at Peter Symonds' School in Winchester, Hampshire in 1922.[clarification needed] Sam adopted the name Christopher Samuel Youd for his professional writings, leading to the widespread but mistaken belief that that was his birth name. Throughout his life he was known simply as Sam to his friends and acquaintances. He served in World War II in the Royal Corps of Signals from 1941 to 1946. A scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation made it possible for him to pursue a writing career, beginning with The Winter Swan (Dennis Dobson, 1949) under the name Christopher Youd. He wrote science fiction short stories as John Christopher from 1951[2] and his first book under that name was a science fiction novel, Year of the Comet, published by Michael Joseph in 1955.[2] John Christopher's second novel, The Death of Grass (Michael Joseph, 1956) was Youd's first major success as a writer. It was published next year in the U.S. as No Blade of Grass (Simon & Schuster, 1957); an American magazine published Year of the Comet later that year and it was issued in 1959 as an Avon paperback entitled Planet in Peril.[2] After Grass, Youd continued to use the John Christopher pseudonym for a majority of his writing and all of his science fiction (thereafter, many novels and few short stories).[2] The Death of Grass has been reissued many times, most recently in the Penguin Modern Classics (2009).[2]
In 1966 he started writing science fiction for adolescents. The Tripods trilogy (1967–68), The Lotus Caves (1969), The Guardians (1970), and the Sword of the Spirits trilogy (1971–72) were well received. He won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Guardians.[1] (The award is conferred by The Guardian newspaper, coincidentally, and judged by a panel of children's writers.) In 1976 he won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, youth fiction category, for the same novel in German-language translation (Die Wächter).
Youd died in Bath, England, on 3 February 2012 of complications from bladder cancer.[4][5]

Film and television adaptions

The Death of Grass was adapted as a film by Cornel Wilde under its American title, No Blade of Grass (1970). The Tripods was partially developed into a British TV series. It is in development as a film (2012).[6] Empty World was developed into a 1987 TV movie in Germany, Leere Welt. The Guardians was made into a 1986 TV series in Germany, Die Wächter. The Lotus Caves was in development in 2007, as a film from Walden Media, to have been directed by Rpin Suwannath.[7][8]

Bibliography

Except where explained otherwise, all listings are novels and novellas published as books.

John Christopher

Christopher Youd

  • The Winter Swan (1949)

Samuel Youd

  • Babel Itself (1951)
  • Brave Conquerors (1952)
  • Crown and Anchor (1953)
  • A Palace of Strangers (1954)
  • Holly Ash (US title The Opportunist, 1955)
  • Giant's Arrow (1956); as Anthony Rye in the UK, Samuel Youd in the US
  • The Choice (UK title The Burning Bird, 1961)
  • Messages of Love (1961)
  • The Summers at Accorn (1963)

William Godfrey

  • Malleson at Melbourne (1956) - a cricket novel, volume 1 of an unfinished trilogy
  • The Friendly Game (1957) - volume 2 of the trilogy

Peter Graaf

  • Dust and the Curious Boy (1957); US title, Give the Devil His Due - volume 1 in the Joe Dust series
  • Daughter Fair (1958) - volume 2 in the Joe Dust series
  • The Sapphire Conference (1959) - volume 3 in the Joe Dust series
  • The Gull's Kiss (1962)

Hilary Ford

  • Felix Walking (1958)
  • Felix Running (1959)
  • Bella on the Roof (1965)
  • A Figure in Grey (1973)
  • Sarnia (1974)
  • Castle Malindine (1975)
  • A Bride for Bedivere (1976)

Peter Nichols

  • Patchwork of Death (1965)

Stanley Winchester

  • The Practice (1968)
  • Men With Knives (1968); US title, A Man With a Knife
  • The Helpers (1970)
  • Ten Per Cent of Your Life (1973)

Short stories

Youd's first published story was "Dreamer" in the March 1941 Weird Tales, as C.S. Youd. He has had stories published in the magazines Astounding Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, Worlds Beyond Science-Fantasy Fiction, New Worlds, Galaxy Science Fiction, SF Digest, Future Science Fiction, Space SF Digest, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Authentic Science Fiction, Space Science Fiction, Nebula Science Fiction, Fantastic Universe, Saturn Science Fiction, Orbit Science Fiction, Fantastic Story Magazine, If: Worlds of Science Fiction, Worlds of Science Fiction (UK), Argosy (UK), The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Beyond Infinity

Serializations

No Blade of Grass was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in 1957. Caves of Night was serialized in John Bull Magazine in 1958.

Anthologies

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