Samuel R. Delany: The Forerunner

It seems to me we should start a discussion about the pioneer who blazed the trail for black writers of science fiction and fantasy: Samuel R. Delany.Delany was not the first black person to write a story that could be considered SF. Charles W. Chestnutt, W.E.B. Du Bois and George S. Schuyler were earlier writers who penned imaginative tales. Some of their work is reprinted in Sheree Renee Thomas’s Dark Matter anthologies.None of those authors, however, wrote specifically for the SF genre. The first writer to do that was Delany. His first novel, The Jewels of Aptor, was published in 1662, when he was only 20 years old. He quickly became one of the major contributors to the “New Wave” of SF. Some of his best works include The Einstein Intersection, Nova, Stars in My Pockets Like Grains of Sand, and the controversial Dhalgren. He has one Hugo and four Nebula awards to his credit, as well as numerous nominations for both honors.His style can best be described as cerebral. His books are not light reading. Like the classic Russian novelists, his prose can be elegantly demanding, but well worth the effort.Delany is both black and gay. He doesn’t stress those aspects of himself in his work, but he doesn’t hide them, either.I met him once, at an SF convention in Toronto, back in 1982. There was a slight physical resemblance between us. We were both light-skinned, had bushy hair and beards, and wore glasses. The biggest difference was height. He stands about 5-foot-8; and I’m 6-foot-3.My first Imaro novel had recently been published, and I gave him a copy. He told me to call him by his nickname, “Chip.” Because he was the convention’s Guest of Honor, I didn’t have a chance to speak with him as much as I would have liked.He and I were the only black people at the convention. On at least a dozen occasions, con-goers came up to me and called me “Mr. Delany,” and asked me so autograph their copies of his books. As far as I know, no one asked him to autograph their copies of Imaro.When I told Chip about my mistaken identity experiences, he said, “I guess all us SF writers look alike.” And we both cracked up laughing.That was our only meeting. I can’t say Delany was a direct influence on me, as he writes science fiction and I write fantasy. But just knowing he was in the field and had done so much was, in itself, inspiring.If SF needed a Jackie Robinson, it could not have done better than Samuel R. Delany. I wonder if other people in this group have been influenced by him.

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