Randall Garrett

Randall Garrett, undated file photo

Garrett's novelette "Hepcats of Venus" was the cover story on the January 1962 Fantastic

Gordon Randall Phillip David Garrett^[2] (December 16, 1927 – December 31, 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. He instructed Robert Silverberg in the techniques of selling large quantities of action-adventure science fiction, and collaborated with him on two novels about men from Earth disrupting a peaceful agrarian civilization on an alien planet.

Biography and writing career[]

Cover of Unwise Child by Garrett

Garrett is best known for the Lord Darcy books — the novel Too Many Magicians and two short story collections — set in an alternate world where a joint Anglo-French empire still led by a Plantagenet dynasty has survived into the twentieth century and where magic works and has been scientifically codified. The Darcy books are rich in jokes, puns, and references (particularly to works of detective and spy fiction: Lord Darcy is modeled on Sherlock Holmes), elements often appearing in the shorter works about the detective. Michael Kurland wrote two additional Lord Darcy novels.

Garrett wrote under a variety of pseudonyms including: David Gordon, John Gordon, Darrel T. Langart (an anagram of his name), Alexander Blade, Richard Greer, Ivar Jorgensen, Clyde Mitchell, Leonard G. Spencer, S. M. Tenneshaw, Gerald Vance. He was also a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, as "Randall of Hightower" (a pun on "garret"). The short novel Brain Twister, written by Garrett with author Laurence Janifer (using the joint pseudonym Mark Phillips), was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960.

An inveterate punster (defining a pun as "the odor given off by a decaying mind"), he was a favorite guest at science fiction conventions and friend to many fans, especially in Southern California. According to various anecdotes in a tribute volume, Garrett was cherished by his friends, who often repeated anecdotes of his behavior, but horrified many women, to whom he routinely introduced himself with obscene propositions.^[3] He introduced himself to Marion Zimmer Bradley with the Latin sentence "Coito ergo sum,"^[4](sic) which she didn't understand until it was explained to her some time later as an obscenity, and at another time to a pregnant Anne McCaffrey with "sly innuendoes" which horrified her. Philip José Farmer recounted an anecdote where Garrett was punched by his then-wife for having a pair of someone else's lace underpants in his pocket, and later ran naked through a hotel after being caught having sex with another woman in the wrong room.^[5] Frank Herbert said "You could follow his movements around this creative Anachronists' picnic by the squeals of the women whose bottoms he had just pinched." Isaac Asimov referred to Garrett's offending Judith Merril enough, she emptied an ashtray over his and Garrett's heads.^[3]

Garrett was married to fellow author Vicki Ann Heydron who largely wrote the Gandalara Cycle fantasy series credited to both spouses.^[6]

In 1999, Randall Garrett was posthumously awarded the Sidewise Award for Alternate History Special Achievement Award for the Lord Darcy series. He was also ordained in the Old Catholic Church.^[7][4] Glen Cook's private detective character Garrett P.I. is named in honor of Garrett.^[8]

Health[]

In the summer of 1979,^[3] Garrett contracted a viral infection which led to meningitis,^[2] and/or encephalitis.^[1]

In The Best of Randall Garrett, a combined anthology and festschrift which was published in January of 1982, editor Robert Silverberg (a personal friend of Garrett's) stated that although the infection "for a time threatened [Garrett's] life and for a much longer time has made it impossible for him to work", Garrett was "fighting his way back to full recovery" ^[3] — and, indeed, when Algis Budrys reviewed the anthology in the August 1982 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, he stated that he had been told that "when last seen, Garrett was seated at a dinner table, cheerfully ignoring the assembled company and attempting to remember the words to a dirty song";^[9] however, in October 1982, Dave Langford reported that the Hugo Award ceremony at that year's Worldcon had included an announcement that Garrett "had permanently lost his memory".^[10] By 1986, the "about the authors" text in the novel The River Wall, credited to Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron, described Garrett as having suffered "serious and permanent injury",^[11] and in 2011, Langford and Brian M. Stableford's entry on Garrett in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction summarized him as having been "hospitalized from 1981 until his death" in 1987.^[12]

Bibliography[]

Gandalara Cycle[]

By Garrett and his wife Vicki Ann Heydron; written by Heydron from a draft of the first volume and an outline of the series by Garrett.

1. The Steel of Raithskar (1981)
2. The Glass of Dyskornis (1982)
3. The Bronze of Eddarta (1983)
4. The Well of Darkness (1983)
5. The Search for Kä (1984)
6. Return to Eddarta (1985)
7. The River Wall (1986)

• The Gandalara Cycle I (1986), omnibus of #1-3 above
• The Gandalara Cycle II (1986), omnibus of #4-6 above

Lord Darcy series[]

1. Murder and Magic (1979), collection of 1964–1973 stories
2. Too Many Magicians (1966), magazine serialization 1966
3. Lord Darcy Investigates (1981), collection of 1974–1979 stories

• Lord Darcy (1983), omnibus containing all three books above. The 2002 edition adds two previously uncollected stories, with minor editing to remove repetitions of the backstory.

Nidorian series[]

With Robert Silverberg, as Robert Randall.

1. The Shrouded Planet (1957)
2. The Dawning Light (1959)

Psi-Power series[]

With Laurence M. Janifer, as Mark Phillips.

• Brain Twister (1962) [1], expansion of That Sweet Little Old Lady (1959)
• "The Impossibles" (1963) [2], previously published as "Out Like a Light" (1960) [3]
• Supermind (1963) [4], a.k.a. Occasion For Disaster

Novels[]

• Pagan Passions (1959) [5] with Laurence Janifer (as Larry M. Harris)
• Unwise Child (1962) [6], a.k.a. Starship Death
• Anything You Can Do... (1963) [7], as Darrel T. Langart, a.k.a. Anything You Can Do, a.k.a. Earth Invader

Collections[]

• Takeoff
  • Takeoff! (1980), composed of tongue-in-cheek imitations of a number of other authors and universes, such as E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series and Reginald Bretnor's Ferdinand Feghoot (who is "Benedict Breadfruit" in Garrett's treatment).
  • Takeoff Too! (1987)
• The Best of Randall Garrett (1982) edited by Robert Silverberg
• A Little Intelligence (2009) with Robert Silverberg, a collection of their early science-fictional mystery stories (Crippen & Landru, 2009)
• Psichopath and Other Science Fiction Stories (2009)
• The Bramble Bush, The Destroyers, The Highest Treason, A Spaceship Named McGuire; A Collection of Short Stories (2011)
• Leland Hale, Galactic Conman (2011)

Anthologies edited[]

• Rastignac the Devil | Despoilers of the Golden Empire (2010) with Philip José Farmer
• The Terror Out of Space | Quest of the Golden Ape (2011) with Dwight V. Swain and Milton Lesser (as Ivar Jorgensen, Dwight V. Swain, and Adam Chase)

Short stories[]

Garrett's novelette "Characteristics: Unusual" was the cover story on the August 1953 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly

Garrett's novella "The Surgeon's Knife" was cover-featured on the May 1954 issue of Universe Science Fiction

Under the "Clyde Mitchell" house name, Garrett and Robert Silverberg wrote "The Mummy Takes a Wife" for Fantastic Stories

Another Garrett-Silverberg collaboration, "Deus Ex Machina", credited to "Robert Randall", took the cover of the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly

Garrett's novelette "The Man Who Collected Women" was cover-featured on the April 1957 issue of Amazing Stories

Garrett's novelette "Trouble with Magic" was the cover story on the March 1959 Fantastic

Under the "S. M. Tenneshaw" house name, Garrett and Robert Silverberg wrote "The Ultimate Weapon" for Imaginative Tales

Garrett's novella "The Low and the Mighty" was the cover story on the final issue of Science Fiction Quarterly in 1958

• "The Absence of Heat" (1944) as Gordon Garrett, appearing in the "Probability Zero" feature of Astounding Science Fiction, June 1944
• "By the Rules" (1950) as David Gordon, in Other Worlds Science Stories, October 1950
• "The Waiting Game" (1951)
• "No Approach" (1951) as David Gordon
• "Pest" (1952) with Lou Tabakow
• "The Day the Gods Fell" (1953) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "The Wishing Stone" (1953) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "Belly Laugh" (1953) [8] also as Ivar Jorgensen
• "Something for the Woman" (1953) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "Instant of Decision" (1953)
• "The Wishing Stone" (1953) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "Characteristics: Unusual" (1953)
• "Nom d'un Nom" (1953)
• "The Breakfast Party" (1953) a.k.a. "League of the Living Dead" (1953)
• "Blessed Are the Murderous" (1954) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "Derelict of Space" (1954)
• "Time Fuze" (1954)
• "Hell to Pay" (1954)
• "The Wayward Course" (1954)
• "The Surgeon's Knife" (1954)
• "Woman Driver" (1954)
• "The Hunting Lodge" (1954)
• "Infinite Resources" (1954)
• "Spatial Delivery" (1954)
• "The Genius" (1955) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "The Man Who Talked to Bees" (1955) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "Two to the Stars" (1955) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "Plague Planet" (1955) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "The Beast with Seven Tails" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Leonard G. Spencer)
• "Calling Captain Flint" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Richard Greer)
• "Catch a Thief" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (also as Gordon Aghill)
• "The Chosen People" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "Gambler's Planet" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Gordon Aghill)
• "A Trip to Anywhen" (1956) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "The Girl from Bodies, Inc." (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Leonard G. Spencer)
• "The Mummy Takes a Wife" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (also as Clyde Mitchell)
• "The Alien Dies at Dawn" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Alexander Blade)
• "The Great Kladnar Race" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (also as Richard Greer)
• "Deus Ex Machina" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (also as Robert Randall)
• "No Future in This" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (also as Robert Randall)
• "Masters of the Metropolis" (1956) with Lin Carter
• "Quick Cure" (1956)
• "The Best of Fences" (1956)
• "Code in the Head" (1956)
• "Machine Complex" (1956)
• "The Saboteur" (1956)
• "The Promised Land" (August 1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "There's No Fool..." (1956) also as David Gordon
• "The Slow and the Dead" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (also as Robert Randall)
• "Suite Mentale" (1956) [9]
• "Stroke of Genius" (1956)
• "The Man Who Hated Mars" (1956) [10]
• "Sound Decision" (1956) with Robert Silverberg
• "The Man Who Knew Everything" (1956)
• "Heist Job on Thizar" (1956) [11]
• "The Judas Valley" (1956) [12] with Robert Silverberg (also as Gerald Vance)
• "With All the Trappings" (1956)
• "Puzzle in Yellow" (1956)
• "No Trap for the Keth" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Ralph Burke)
• "Tools of the Trade" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "Death to the Earthman" (1956)
• "The Inquisitor" (1956)
• "Secret of the Green Invaders" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "Battle for the Thousand Suns" (1956) with Robert Silverberg (as Calvin Knox and David Gordon)
• "False Prophet" (December 1956) with Robert Silverberg as (Robert Randall)
• "Quest of the Golden Ape" (1957) as Ivar Jorgensen, with Milton Lesser as Adam Chase
• "The Vengeance of Kyvor" (1957)
• "The Penal Cluster" (1957) [13] as Ivar Jorgensen
• "The Secret of the Shan" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Richard Greer)
• "And Then He Was Two" (1957) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "The Convincer" (1957) as David Gordon
• "Hero from Yesterday" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "House Operator" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as S.M. Tenneshaw)
• "Slaughter on Dornell IV" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Ivar Jorgensen)
• "The Incomplete Theft" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Ralph Burke)
• "The Star Slavers" (1957)
• "The Ultimate Weapon" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as S.M. Tenneshaw)
• "Wednesday Morning Sermon" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Alexander Blade)
• "The Time Snatcher" (1957)
• "Time to Stop" (1957)
• "The Devil Never Waits" (1957)
• "The Man With X-Ray Eyes" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Leonard G. Spencer)
• "Bleekman's Planet" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Ivar Jorgensen)
• "Deadly Decoy" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Clyde Mitchell)
• "Hungry World" (1957)
• "The Man Who Hated Noise" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as S.M. Tenneshaw)
• "Saturnalia" (1957)
• "The Man Who Collected Women" (1957)
• "Guardians of the Tower" (1957)
• "What's Eating You?" (1957)
• "The Last Killer" (1957)
• "You Too Can Win a Harem" (1957)
• "Needler" (1957)
• "A Pattern for Monsters" (1957)
• "Six Frightened Men" (1957)
• "Blank?" (1957)
• "Kill Me If You Can!" (1957) as S.M. Tenneshaw
• "The Best Policy" (1957) also as David Gordon. A smart Earthling is abducted by a reconnaissance group of hostile aliens, but convinces them that Earthlings are a far more advanced and superior race, so they end up sending humble ambassadors instead of conquering the planet. The catch is these aliens have a perfect truth detector, so the hero has to phrase his every comment very carefully so that he can pull off such a huge lie while being literally honest.
• "Gift from Tomorrow" (1957)
• "Devil's World" (1957)
• "Pirates of the Void" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Ivar Jorgensen)
• "Hot Trip for Venus" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Ralph Burke)
• "Skid Row Pilot" (1957)
• "Look Out! Duck!" (1957) also as David Gordon
• "Killer - First Class" (1957)
• "Gentlemen: Please Note" (1957)
• "The Mannion Court-Martial" (1957)
• "The Ambassador's Pet" (1957) with Robert Silverberg (as Alexander Blade)
• "Deathtrap Planet" (1957)
• "Satellite of Death" (1957)
• "A Bird in the Hand" (1958) as David Gordon
• "All the King's Horses" (1958) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "Intelligence Quotient" (1958) also as David Gordon
• "Menace from Vega" (1958) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "Strike the First Blow!" (1958)
• "Beyond Our Control" (1958)
• "Vanishing Act" (1958) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "The Low and the Mighty" (1958)
• "Penal Servitude" (1958)
• "Decision Final" (1958) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "Far from Somewhere" (1958)
• "No Connections" (1958) a.k.a. "...No Connections" (1958)
• "Prisoner of War" (1958)
• "A Little Intelligence" (1958) with Robert Silverberg (also as Randall Garrett, also as Robert Randall)
• "...And Check the Oil" (1958)
• "Burden the Hand" (1958)
• "The Savage Machine" (1958)
• "The Queen Bee" (1958)
• "Backward, Turn Backward" (1959)
• "Despoilers of the Golden Empire" (1959)
• "The Trouble With Magic" (1959)
• "Cum Grano Salis" (1959) [14] also as David Gordon
• "Small Miracle" (1959)
• "But, I Don't Think" (1959) [15]
• "Ready, Aim, Robot!" (1959)
• "Dead Giveaway" (1959) [16]
• "...Or Your Money Back" (1959) [17] also as David Gordon
• "The Unnecessary Man" (1959) [18]
• "The Destroyers" (1959) [19]
• "The Price of Eggs" (1959)
• "Viewpoint" (1960) [20]
• "What the Left Hand Was Doing" (1960) [21] as Darrell T. Langart
• "Mercenaries Unlimited" (1960) as David Gordon
• "In Case of Fire" (1960) [22]
• The Measure of a Man (1960) [23]
• "Damned If You Don't" (1960) [24]
• "By Proxy" (1960) as David Gordon [25]
• "... And Peace Attend Thee" (1960)
• "Psichopath" (1960) also as Darrell T. Langart, a.k.a. "Psicopath" (1960) [26]
• "Engineer's Art" (1961)
• "Hanging by a Thread" (1961) [27] as David Gordon
• "The Foreign Hand-Tie" (1961) [28] a.k.a. "The Foreign Hand Tie", also as David Gordon
• "Fifty Per Cent Prophet" (1961) [29] as Darrell T. Langart
• "The Highest Treason" (1961) [30]
• "Random Choice" (1961)
• "Something Rich and Strange" (1961) with Avram Davidson
• "A Spaceship Named McGuire" (1961) [31]
• "The Blaze of Noon" (1961) with Avram Davidson
• "The Asses of Balaam" (1961) [32] as David Gordon
• "Mustang" (1961)
• "Anything You Can Do" (1962) Short Version as Darrell T. Langart
• "La Difference" (1962)
• "Nor Iron Bars a Cage ..." (1962) [33] as Johnathan Blake MacKenzie
• "Anchorite" (1962) as Johnathan Blake MacKenzie [34]
• "Hepcats of Venus" (1962) a.k.a. "The Cosmic Beat" (1962)
• "Hail to the Chief" (1962) [35] also as Janet Argo and Sam Argo
• "His Master's Voice" (1962)
• "The Bramble Bush" (1962) [36]
• "Spatial Relationship" (1962)
• "... After a Few Words ..." (1962) also as Seaton McKettrig
• "With No Strings Attached" (1963) [37] also as David Gordon
• "Thin Edge" (1963) [38] also as Johnathan Blake MacKenzie
• "A World by the Tale" (1963) as Seaton McKettrig [39]
• "Tin Lizzie" (1964)
• "A Fortnight of Miracles" (1965)
• "Fighting Division" (1965)
• "Overproof" (1965) also as Johnathan Blake MacKenzie
• "Witness for the Persecution" (1966)
• "The Briefing" (1969)
• "Fimbulsommer" (1970) with Michael Kurland
• "The Deadly Sky" (1971) as Ivar Jorgensen
• "Color Me Deadly" (1973)
• "Pride and Primacy" (1974)
• "Reading the Meter" (1974)
• "The Final Fighting of Fion Mac Cumhaill" (1975)
• "Lauralyn" (1977)
• "On the Martian Problem" (1977)
• "The Horror Out of Time" (1978)
• "Polly Plus" (1978)
• "Backstage Lensman" (1978)
• "Frost and Thunder" (1979)
• "Prehistoric Note" (1979)
• "Keepersmith" (1979) with Vicki Ann Heydron
• "Just Another Vampire Story" (1979)
• The Adventures of "Little Willie" (1980)
• "Into My Parlor" (1987)
• "Human Reaction" (2009) with Robert Silverberg
• "The Highest ... Treason" (2009)

Poem series[]

Poor Willie[]

• "I've Got a Little List" (1953)
• "Blaze of Glory" (1955)
• "Backward, Turn Backward" (1960) a.k.a. "Backward, Turn Backward ..." (1961)
• "Hot Argument" (1960)
• "Pop!" (1960)
• "Zap!" (1963)
• "La Difference" (1963)

Parodies Tossed[]

"Parodies Tossed" was a feature of Columbia Publications' Science Fiction Stories and Future Science Fiction.

• "All About 'The Thing'" (1956) a.k.a. "Parodies Tossed" (1956)
• "John W. Campbell's 'Who Goes There?'" (1956)
• "Isaac Asimov's 'The Caves of Steel'" (1956)
• "Parodies Tossed: Alfred Bester's 'The Demolished Man'" (1956) a.k.a. "Alfred Bester's 'The Demolished Man'" (1956)
• "Parodies Tossed: A. E. van Vogt's 'Slan'" (1956) a.k.a. "A.E. van Vogt's 'Slan'" (1956)
• "Parodies Tossed: Isaac Asimov's 'The Caves of Steel'" (1956)
• "Parodies Tossed: James Blish and Michael Sherman's 'The Duplicated Man'" (1956) a.k.a. "James Blish and Michael Sherman's 'The Duplicated Man': A Review in Verse" (1956)
• "Parodies Tossed: L. Sprague de Camp's 'Lest Darkness Fall'" (1956) a.k.a. "L. Sprague de Camp's 'Lest Darkness Fall'" (1956)
• The last "Parodies Tossed: Immortality, C.O.D." (by Bret Hooper [not Garrett]) review of Robert Sheckley's "Immortality Delivered" (June, 1960, final issue of Science Fiction Stories)
• "Poul Anderson's 'Three Hearts and Three Lions': A Calypso in Search of a Rhyme" (1979) with Vicki Ann Heydron (wife)

Poems[]

• "Oh No, John" (1955)
• "A Certain Answer" (1958) with Robert Silverberg (as Robert Randall)
• "Our Patrol" (1978)
• "El Ropo Tarkas" (1978)
• "Ballade for Convention Lovers" (year?)

The collection Takeoff Too included a poem, which the editor titled "The Egyptian Diamond", which was erroneously credited to Garrett. It was actually written by Jack Bennett and originally published under the title "Ben Ali the Egyptian".^[13] Parts of "Ben Ali the Egyptian" were quoted in Garrett's short story "The Foreign Hand Tie."

References[]

External links[]

• Randall Garrett at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Bibliography on SciFan
• Works by Randall Garrett at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Randall Garrett at Internet Archive
• Works by Randall Garrett at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)