(1928-1976) US poet, novelist and academic who taught English literature at Florida Atlantic University, turning to full-time writing in the early 1960s. As an academic he published works on the poet HD (Hilda Doolittle [1886-1961]) and others, including Wonder and Whimsy: The Fantastic World of Christina Rossetti (1960). Much of his fiction – beginning with "Winged Victory" for Fantastic Universe in 1958 – could be described as Science Fantasy, as it posits a sustained Alternate-History version of Earth's history; but its abiding tenor is of Fantasy. Briefly, the Swann version of history centres on the doomed encounter of the Supernatural Creatures of legend – dryads, centaurs, panisci, minotaurs, et al. – with ascendant humanity, climaxing at the time when Rome and Christianity were extending their Imperialisms across the doomed, childlike, prelapsarian world. Most of his tales – all set well before the alternate twentieth century, which Swann clearly found impossible to imagine, and populated by young protagonists before puberty drives them from the Garden – fit into this history. In order of their internal chronology they are: The Minikins of Yam (1976), set around 2500 BCE; the Minotaur sequence, comprising Cry Silver Bells (1977), The Forest of Forever (1971) and Day of the Minotaur (September/October 1964-January/February 1965 Science Fantasy as "The Blue Monkeys"; 1966), set in Mycenaean Crete; the Mellonia sequence, comprising Queens Walk in the Dusk (1977), Green Phoenix (1972) and Lady of the Bees (April 1962 Science Fantasy as "Where is the Bird of Fire?"; exp 1976), set in burgeoning Rome; Wolfwinter (1972), The Weirwoods (1967) and The Gods Abide (1976), the three novels in which humanity's religious and political destruction of the old ways reaches a climax; and a final scattering of nostalgia-choked tales set in the Christian era, The Tournament of Thorns (fixup 1976), Will-o-the-Wisp (1976), The Not-World (1975) and The Goat without Horns (1971). This sequence, each title being a litany of desiderium and dying falls, evoked a warm response from fantasy and sf readers, a response not dissimilar to that evoked by the ecological sf that began to appear around the same time (> Ecology). Swann's early works are generally stronger than his later titles, most of these comprising debilitated prequels to earlier and better tales. Throughout, a finger-pointing sentimentality tends to vitiate the deeply felt over-narrative Swann had committed himself to, but moments of epiphany occur at points, and when they do they evoke a powerful empathy. [JC]
see also: Gods and Demons; Mythology.
Thomas Burnett Swann
born Tampa, Florida: 12 October 1928
died Winter Haven, Florida: 5 May 1976
works
series
Minotaur
Mellonia
individual titles
- The Weirwoods (New York: Ace Books, 1967) [pb/Gray Morrow]
- The Dolphin and the Deep (New York: Ace Books, 1968) [coll: pb/Gray Morrow]
- Moondust (New York: Ace Books, 1968) [pb/Jeff Jones]
- Where is the Bird of Fire? (New York: Ace Books, 1970) [coll: pb/John Schoenherr]
- The Goat Without Horns (New York: Ballantine Books, 1971) [pb/Gene Szafran]
- Wolfwinter (New York: Ballantine Books, 1972) [pb/Gene Szafran]
- How Are the Mighty Fallen (New York: DAW Books, 1974) [pb/George Barr]
- The Not-World (New York: DAW Books, 1975) [pb/George Barr]
- The Minikins of Yam (New York: DAW Books, 1976) [pb/George Barr]
- The Gods Abide (New York: DAW Books, 1976) [pb/George Barr]
- The Tournament of Thorns (New York: Ace Books, 1976) [pb/uncredited]
- Will-O-the-Wisp (London: Corgi Books, 1976) [first appeared September-November 1974 Fantastic: pb/Chris Achilleos]
nonfiction
- Wonder and Whimsy: The Fantastic World of Christina Rossetti (Francestown, New Hampshire: Marshall Jones Company, 1960) [nonfiction: hb/]
- The Classical World of H. D. (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1962) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Ernest Dowson (Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers, 1964) [nonfiction: hb/]
- The Ungirt Runner: Charles Hamilton Sorley, Poet of World War One (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1965) [nonfiction: hb/]
- A A Milne (Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers, 1971) [nonfiction: hb/]
- The Heroine or the Horse: Leading Ladies in Republic's Films (Brunswick, New Jersey: Barnes, 1977) [nonfiction: pb/]
about the author
links
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