F. M. Busby
Francis Marion Busby, born on March 11, 1921, in Indianapolis, Indiana, was a notable figure in the science fiction community, particularly known for his contributions to both amateur and professional realms of the genre. After serving in the National Guard and the army, he graduated from Washington State University in 1946 and worked as a communications engineer for three decades. His active engagement in science fiction fandom began in 1950 when he joined a Seattle group called the Nameless Ones, where he also met his future wife, Elinor Doub. They collaborated on the award-winning fanzine *Cry of the Nameless Ones*.
Busby's writing career transitioned from amateur to professional after attending the Clarion science fiction Writer's Workshop in 1972, leading to his first novel, *Cage a Man*, in 1973. He developed a robust body of work that included the *Demu Trilogy* and a series of novels centered on a female protagonist, Rissa Kerguelen. His later works explored more complex themes and included titles like *The Breeds of Man*, which engaged with contemporary issues such as AIDS. He continued to evolve as a writer, producing a range of short fiction collected in *Getting Home*. Busby’s life came to an end on February 17, 2005, after battling health issues in his later years, leaving behind a legacy of passionate storytelling in science fiction.
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F. M. Busby
Writer
- Born: March 11, 1921
- Birthplace: Indianapolis, Indiana
- Died: February 17, 2005
- Place of death: Seattle, Washington
Biography
Francis Marion Busby was born on March 11, 1921, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He grew up in f Washington and attended Washington State University, although his college studies were interrupted by service in the National Guard and the army before he graduated in 1946. He worked as a communications engineer for thirty years thereafter. Busby became actively involved in science fiction fandom in Seattle in 1950, when he joined a local group whose members called themselves the Nameless Ones. He wrote extensively for the group’s fanzines, and he met Elinor Doub at group meetings; the two married in 1954, thereafter serving as editors of the award-winning fanzine Cry of the Nameless Ones.
Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s Busby’s involvement with science fiction was almost entirely confined to the amateur arena, although he sold his first short story to a professional magazine in 1957. He wrote trenchant book review columns for various fanzines, and he and his wife were active in the Fantasy Amateur Press Association. He turned his attention more determinedly to professional opportunities after attending the Clarion science fiction Writer’s Workshop in 1972, publishing his first novel, Cage a Man, the following year. The robust space opera series it launched was eventually collected in The Demu Trilogy (1987). Another novel, in a similar vein but featuring a female hero, was published as two books in 1976, Rissa Kerguelen and The Long View, and published as three books when it was reissued. Zelde M’Tana (1980) is set in the same fictional world, as is an ebullient series of novels that employ Rissa Kerguelen’s eventual husband as a central character: The Star Rebel, The Alien Debt, Rebel’s Quest, and Rebel’s Seed.
Busby’s novels became more various and less dependent on strident melodramatic devices as his career progressed, although he never sacrificed the fervent narrative drive that characterized his early action-adventure fiction. The AIDS-inspired biological science fiction novel The Breeds of Man (1988) deliberately courts controversy but exhibits a typical extrapolative boldness. The Slow Freight trilogy, composed of Islands of Tomorrow, Arrow from Earth, and The Triad Worlds, is a space opera in a more sophisticated vein than his early extravaganzas, incorporating such subsidiary themes as the population problem. The Singularity Project (1993) belongs to an interesting subgenre of science fiction novels tracking the invention and social impact of a technology of matter transmission, in the spirit of a thought experiment. Some of his short fiction, which always ranged more widely than his novels, is collected in Getting Home (1987).
Although he turned to fiction much later in life than most practitioners of his genre, Busby’s long experience as a reader and reviewer animated his work with an uncommon fervor. Busby developed intestinal problems in his eighties, which eventually resulted in his being hospitalized in January, 2005. He died on February 17, 2005.