James H. Schmitz


James Henry Schmitz was a German-American science fiction writer.
WWW 75.95.141.45:8080/schmitz

Early life

Schmitz was born in Hamburg, Germany to American parents and 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.

Education and early career

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.

Writing career

Schmitz wrote mostly short stories, which sold chiefly to Galaxy Science Fiction and Astounding Science-Fiction. 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 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.
His story "Second Night of Summer", published in Galaxy Science Fiction in December 1950, features the of the term "hive mind" in science fiction.
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, 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.

Personal life

During World War II, Schmitz served as an aerial photographer in the Pacific for the United States Army Air Forces. After the war, he took residence in California where he and his brother-in-law managed a business which manufactured trailers until they ended the business in 1949. 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.

Short works

Listed chronologically, with month and year of publication, as well as the magazine, listed in parentheses.

1940s

1950s

  • "The Truth About Cushgar"
  • ""
  • "Space Fear"
  • "Captives of the Thieve Star"
  • "The End of the Line"
  • ""
  • ""
  • ""
  • "The Vampirate"
  • "Grandpa"
  • ""
  • "Sour Note on Palayata"
  • "The Big Terrarium"
  • "Harvest Time"
  • "Summer Guests"

1960s

  • "The Illusionists"
  • "Gone Fishing"
  • "Lion Loose..."
  • "The Star Hyacinths"
  • "An Incident on Route 12"
  • "Swift Completion"
  • "Novice"
  • "The Other Likeness"
  • "Rogue Psi"
  • "Watch the Sky"
  • "These Are the Arts"
  • "The Winds of Time"
  • "Left Hand, Right Hand"
  • "Beacon to Elsewhere"
  • "Oneness"
  • "Ham Sandwich"
  • "Undercurrents"
  • "Clean Slate"
  • "The Machmen"
  • "A Nice Day for Screaming"
  • ""
  • "The Pork Chop Tree"
  • "Balanced Ecology"
  • "Goblin Night"
  • "Trouble Tide"
  • "Research Alpha"
  • "Sleep No More"
  • "Space Master"
  • "The Tangled Web"
  • "Faddist"
  • "The Searcher"
  • "The Witches of Karres"
  • "The Tuvela"
  • "Where the Time Went"
  • "The Custodians"
  • "Just Curious"
  • "Attitudes"
  • "Would You?"

1970s

  • "Resident Witch"
  • "Compulsion"
  • "The Telzey Toy"
  • "Company Planet"
  • "Glory Day"
  • "Poltergeist"
  • "The Lion Game"
  • "Child of the Gods"
  • "The Symbiotes"
  • "Crime Buff"
  • "One Step Ahead"
  • "Aura of Immortality"

2000s

  • "Blood of Nalakia"
  • "Ti's Toys"
  • "Forget It"

Collections

Listed by title, with chronological publishing list.

  • 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 Books
  • Agent of Vega & Other Stories
  • *Includes: 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 Books
  • The Best of James H. Schmitz
  • *Includes: Grandpa; Lion Loose...; Just Curious; The Second Night of Summer; Novice; Balanced Ecology; The Custodians; Sour Note on Palayata; Goblin Night.
  • *Hardcover, 1991, NESFA Press
  • Eternal Frontier
  • *Includes: 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 Books
  • The Hub: Dangerous Territory
  • *Includes: 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 Books
  • The Lion Game
  • *Includes: Goblin Night; Sleep No More; The Lion Game.
  • *Paperback, 1973, DAW Books
  • *Hardcover, 1976, Sidgwick & Jackson
  • *Paperback, 1979, Hamlyn
  • *Paperback, 1982, Ace Books


  • 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 ; 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
  • *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
  • Legacy
  • A Tale of Two Clocks
  • *Hardcover, 1962, Torquil Books/SFBC
  • *Paperback, 1965, Belmont
  • The Witches of Karres
  • *Hardcover, 1966, Chilton
  • *Paperback, 1966, Ace Books
  • *Paperback, 1977, Ace Books
  • *Paperback, 1981, Ace Books
  • *Paperback, 1988, Gollancz
  • *Hardcover, 1992, Baen Books/SFBC


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