James H. Schmitz

James H. Schmitz
James Henry Schmitz (October 15, 1911 – April 18, 1981) was an American science fiction writer born in Hamburg, Germany of American parents.
Life
Schmitz was educated at a Realgymnasium in Hamburg, and grew up speaking both English and German. The family spent World War I in the United States, then returned to Germany. Schmitz traveled to Chicago in 1930 to go to business school, then switched to a correspondence course in journalism. Unable to find a job because of the Great Depression, he returned to Germany to work with his father's company. Schmitz lived in various German cities, where he worked for the International Harvester Company, until his family left shortly before World War II broke out in Europe.
During World War II, Schmitz served as an aerial photographer in the Pacific for the United States Army Air Forces. After the war, he and his brother-in-law managed a business which manufactured trailers until they ended the business in 1949.
After the war, he made his home in California, where he lived until his death.
Schmitz died of congestive lung failure in 1981 after a five-week stay in hospital in Los Angeles. He was survived by his wife, Betty Mae Chapman Schmitz.
Writing
Schmitz wrote mostly short stories, which sold chiefly to Galaxy Science Fiction and Astounding Science-Fiction (which later became Analog Science Fiction and Fact). Gale Biography in Context called him "a craftsmanlike writer who was a steady contributor to science fiction magazines for over 20 years."
Schmitz is best known as a writer of "space opera", and for his strong female characters (such as Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee) who did not conform to the "damsel in distress" stereotype typical of science fiction of the time.
His first published story was "Greenface", published in August 1943 in Unknown.
Most of his works are part of the "Hub" series and feature characters with telepathy. However, the novel that "is usually thought of as Schmitz's best work" is The Witches of Karres, concerning juvenile "witches" with genuine psi-powers and their escape from slavery. The Witches of Karres was nominated for a Hugo Award. In recent years, his novels and short stories have been republished by Baen Books, edited and with notes by Eric Flint.
In an introductory essay comparing Schmitz with contemporary author A. E. van Vogt, Gardner Dozois wrote, "Although he lacked van Vogt's paranoid tension and ornately Byzantine plots, the late James H. Schmitz was considerably better at people than van Vogt was, crafting even his villains as complicated, psychologically complex, and non-stereotypical characters, full of surprising quirks and behaviors that you didn't see in a lot of other Space Adventure stuff."
Dozois added:
John Clute writes in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction,
Greg Fowlkes, editor-in-chief of Resurrected Press, said, "During the 50s and 60s "Space Opera" and James H. Schmitz were almost synonymous. He was famous for his tales of interstellar secret agents and galactic criminals, and particularly for heroines such as Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee. Many of these characters had enhanced "psionic" powers that let them use their minds as well as their weapons to foil their enemies. All of them were resourceful in the best heroic tradition."
In an essay in the anthology The Good Old Stuff (1998), Dozois laments that the book Agent of Vega is "long out-of-print, alas, but one which – if you can find it – delivers as pure a jolt of Widescreen Space Opera Sense of wonder as can be found anywhere." However, the website Free Speculative Fiction Online freely offers Agent of Vega, along with several of Schmitz's other stories, including "Greenface", "Balanced Ecology", "Lion Loose", "Goblin Night", and many more.
Schmitz wrote the introduction to the concordance The Universes of E. E. Smith.
Legacy
Gardner Dozois has said, in prefacing the Schmitz tale "The Second Night of Summer", in which humans on the planet Noorhut face an attack from aliens and are, unbeknownst to themselves, saved by the actions of a single woman with psi powers, Granny Wannattel, with the sole help of a friendly alien she calls her pony:
With his popular equality-between-the-sexes fiction, Schmitz eased the way for later writers such as Joanna Russ, James Tiptree, Jr., Kit Reed, Connie Willis, Sheri S. Tepper, and other science fiction authors who used female protagonists and feminine point-of-view more than half the time. Of "The Second Night of Summer", Dozois went on to write, "the hero of the piece is not only a woman, but an old woman ... a choice that most adventure writers wouldn't even make now, in 1998, let alone in 1950, which is when Schmitz made it!"
Mercedes Lackey places her first meeting with science fiction at age 10 or 11, when she happened to pick up her father's copy of James H. Schmitz's Agent of Vega.
Short works
Listed chronologically, with month and year of publication, as well as the magazine, listed in parentheses.
1940s
"Greenface" (August 1943, Unknown)
"Agent of Vega" (July 1949, Astounding)
"The Witches of Karres" (Novella, December 1949, Astounding)
1950s
"The Truth About Cushgar" (November 1950, Astounding)
"The Second Night of Summer" (December 1950, Galaxy Science Fiction)
"Space Fear" (March 1951, Astounding)
"Captives of the Thieve Star" (May 1951, Planet Stories)
"The End of the Line" (July 1951, Astounding)
"The Altruist" (September 1952, Galaxy Science Fiction)
"We Don't Want Any Trouble" (June 1953, Galaxy Science Fiction)
"Caretaker" (July 1953, Galaxy Science Fiction)
"The Vampirate" (December 1953, Science-Fiction Plus)
"Grandpa" (February 1955, Astounding)
"The Ties of Earth" (November 1955, Galaxy Part 1)(January 1956, Galaxy part 2)
"Sour Note on Palayata" (November 1956, Astounding)
"The Big Terrarium" (May 1957, Saturn)
"Harvest Time" (September 1958, Astounding)
"Summer Guests" (September 1959, Worlds of If)
1960s
"The Illusionists" (retitle of Space Fear, 1960, Agent of Vega)
"Gone Fishing" (May 1961, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Lion Loose..." (October 1961, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"The Star Hyacinths" (December 1961, Amazing Stories)
"An Incident on Route 12" (January 1962, Worlds of If)
"Swift Completion" (March 1962, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine)
"Novice" (June 1962, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"The Other Likeness" (July 1962, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Rogue Psi" (August 1962, Amazing Stories)
"Watch the Sky" (August 1962, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"These Are the Arts" (September 1962, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
"The Winds of Time" (September 1962, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Left Hand, Right Hand" (November 1962, Amazing Stories)
"Beacon to Elsewhere" (April 1963, Amazing Stories)
"Oneness" (May 1963, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Ham Sandwich" (June 1963, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Undercurrents" (May 1964, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Clean Slate" (September 1964, Amazing Stories)
"The Machmen" (September 1964, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"A Nice Day for Screaming" (January 1965, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Planet of Forgetting" (February 1965, Galaxy Science Fiction)
"The Pork Chop Tree" (February 1965, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Balanced Ecology" (March 1965, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Goblin Night" (April 1965, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Trouble Tide" (May 1965, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Research Alpha" (July 1965, Worlds of If)
"Sleep No More" (August 1965, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Space Master" (1965, New Writings in SF 3)
"The Tangled Web" (retitle of The Star Hyacinths, 1965, A Nice Day for Screaming and Other Tales of the Hub)
"Faddist" (January 1966, Bizarre Mystery Magazine)
"The Searcher" (February 1966, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"The Witches of Karres" (Novel, 1966)
"The Tuvela" (September 1968, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Where the Time Went" (November 1968, Worlds of If)
"The Custodians" (December 1968, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Just Curious" (December 1968, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine)
"Attitudes" (February 1969, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
"Would You?" (December 1969, Fantastic)
1970s
"Resident Witch" (May 1970, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Compulsion" (June 1970, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"The Telzey Toy" (January 1971, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Company Planet" (May 1971, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Glory Day" (June 1971, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Poltergeist" (July 1971, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"The Lion Game" (August 1971, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Child of the Gods" (March 1972, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"The Symbiotes" (September 1972, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
"Crime Buff" (August 1973, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine)
"One Step Ahead" (April 1974, Worlds of If)
"Aura of Immortality" (June 1974, Worlds of If)
2000s
"Blood of Nalakia" (retitle of The Vampirate, 2000, Telzey Amberdon)
"Ti's Toys" (retitle of The Telzey Toy, 2000, T'nT: Telzey & Trigger)
"Forget It" (retitle of Planet of Forgetting, January 2001, Trigger & Friends)
Collections
Listed by title, with chronological publishing list.
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Agent of Vega
Includes: Agent of Vega; The Illusionists; The Truth About Cushgar; The Second Night of Summer
Hardcover, 1960, Gnome Press, listed on cover as "James A. Schmitz"
Paperback, June 1962, Permabook
Paperback, June 1964, Mayflower
Paperback, 1973, Tempo Books/Grosset & Dunlap
Paperback, 1982, Ace BooksAgent of Vega & Other StoriesIncludes: Agent of Vega; The Illusionists; The Second Night of Summer; The Truth About Cushgar; The Custodians; Gone Fishing; The Beacon to Elsewhere; The End of the Line; Watch the Sky; Greenface; Rogue Psi.
Paperback, November 2001, Baen BooksThe Best of James H. SchmitzIncludes: Grandpa; Lion Loose...; Just Curious; The Second Night of Summer; Novice; Balanced Ecology; The Custodians; Sour Note on Palayata; Goblin Night.
Hardcover, 1991, NESFA PressEternal FrontierIncludes: The Big Terrarium; Summer Guests; Captives of the Thieve-Star; Caretaker; One Step Ahead; Left Hand, Right Hand; The Ties of Earth; Spacemaster; The Altruist; Oneness; We Don't Want Any Trouble; Just Curious; Would You?; These Are the Arts; Clean Slate; Crime Buff; Ham Sandwich; Where the Time Went; An Incident on Route 12; Swift Completion; Faddist; The Eternal Frontiers.
Paperback, September 2002, Baen BooksThe Hub: Dangerous TerritoryIncludes: The Searcher; Grandpa; Balanced Ecology; A Nice Day for Screaming; The Winds of Time; The Machmen; The Other Likeness; Attitudes; Trouble Tide; The Demon Breed.
Paperback, 2001, Baen BooksThe Lion GameIncludes: Goblin Night; Sleep No More; The Lion Game.
Paperback, 1973, DAW Books
Hardcover, 1976, Sidgwick & Jackson
Paperback, 1979, Hamlyn
Paperback, 1982, Ace Books
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A Nice Day for Screaming and Other Tales of the Hub
Includes: Balanced Ecology; A Nice Day for Screaming; The Tangled Web; The Machmen; The Other Likeness; The Winds of Time.
Hardcover, 1965, Chilton
A Pride of Monsters
Includes: Lion Loose; The Searcher; The Winds of Time; The Pork Chop Tree; Greenface.
Hardcover, 1970, MacMillan
Paperback, 1973, Collier
Telzey Amberdon
Includes: Novice; Undercurrents; Poltergeist; Goblin Night; Sleep No More; The Lion Game; Blood of Nalakia; The Star Hyacinths.
Paperback, April 2000, Baen Books
The Telzey Toy
Includes: The Telzey Toy; Resident Witch; Compulsion; Company Planet.
Paperback, 1973, DAW Books
Hardcover, 1976, Sidgwick & Jackson
Hardcover, 1978, Sidgwick & Jackson, in a 3-in-1 collection titled Special 24
Paperback, 1982, Ace Books
Paperback, 1983, Hamlyn
The Universe Against Her
Includes: Novice; Undercurrents.
Paperback, 1964, Ace Books
Paperback, 1979, Ace Books
Hardcover, 1981, Gregg Press
T'nT: Telzey & Trigger
Includes: Company Planet; Resident Witch; Compulsion (includes The Pork Chop Tree as prolog); Glory Day; Child of the Gods; Ti's Toys; Symbiotes.
Paperback, July 2000, Baen Books
Trigger & Friends
Includes: Lion Loose; Harvest Time; Forget It; Aura of Immortality; Legacy; A Sour Note on Palayata.
Paperback, January 2001, Baen Books
The Winds of Time
Includes: An Incident on Route 12; Watch the Sky; The Winds of Time; Lion Loose.
Paperback, February 2008, Wildside Press
Novels
Listed by title, with chronological publishing list.
The Demon Breed (retitle of The Tuvela)
Hardcover, 1968, Ace Books/SFBC
Paperback, 1968, Ace Books
Hardcover, 1969, MacDonald
Hardcover, 1971, UK SFBC/Newton Abbot
Paperback, 1974, Orbit Books
Paperback, 1979, Ace Books/SFBC
Paperback, 1981, Ace Books
The Eternal Frontiers
Hardcover, 1973, G. P. Putnam's Sons
Paperback, 1973, Berkley Books
Hardcover, 1974, Sidgwick & Jackson
Hardcover, 1976, Sidgwick & Jackson (in a 3-in-1 compilation titled Special 18)
Legacy (retitle of A Tale of Two Clocks, paperback, 1979, Ace Books) (available from gutenberg)
A Tale of Two Clocks
Hardcover, 1962, Torquil Books/SFBC
Paperback, 1965, Belmont
The Witches of Karres
Hardcover, 1966, Chilton
Paperback, 1966 (twice), Ace Books
Paperback, 1977, Ace Books
Paperback, 1981, Ace Books
Paperback, 1988, Gollancz
Hardcover, 1992, Baen Books/SFBC
Related books
The Wizard of Karres, by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer, 2004
This is a sequel of The Witches of Karres which follows the continuing adventures of Captain Pausert, Goth, and the Leewit.
The Sorceress of Karres, by Eric Flint and Dave Freer, 2010
This is a sequel of The Wizard of Karres which follows the continuing adventures of Captain Pausert, Goth, and the Leewit.
The Shaman of Karres, by Eric Flint and Dave Freer, 2020
This is a sequel of The Sorceress of Karres which follows the continuing adventures of Captain Pausert, Goth, and the Leewit.
References
External links
James H. Schmitz obituary
The James H. Schmitz Encyclopedia
SciFan database
Major characters, with illustrations
James H. Schmitz's online fiction at Free Speculative Fiction Online''
1911 births
1981 deaths
20th-century American novelists
American male novelists
American science fiction writers
Writers from Hamburg
United States Army Air Forces soldiers
United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II
American male short story writers
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
American expatriates in Germany
World War II photographers