Gordon R. Dickson

Gordon Rupert Dickson (Edmonton, 1923 - Richfield, Minnesota, 2001) wrote science fiction and fantasy in English. He is best known for the Childe Cycle, also called the Dorsai series, and for the Dragon Knight books. Born in Canada, he moved with his mother to Minneapolis in 1937 after his father died, and he spent most of his life in the United States. His work belongs to the mid-century American science fiction scene, and it matters for combining military adventure with questions about what it means to be human.

He studied at the University of Minnesota and served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946. His first published speculative fiction, written with Poul Anderson, appeared in 1950, and the following year several of his solo stories came out in magazines edited by John W. Campbell. With Anderson he also began the lighter Hoka series. His protagonists are often soldiers or mercenaries, and his aliens tend to seem more lovable than humans. John Clute notes a Nordic melancholy in his prose, set against rural Midwestern landscapes, and a habit of inserting lyric poetry into epic plots, with uneven results.

He suffered from asthma for much of his life, and the illness eventually caused his death. In 1974 he gave the University of Minnesota notes and drafts for more than 240 short stories and 36 novels, which were made available to researchers. He won several Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award, and in 2000 he was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. He is remembered as a steady, genre-loyal author whose Dorsai books remain a reference point for military science fiction.