Morgan, Dan
Entry updated 25 March 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1925-2011) UK poet, author and professional guitarist, about which instrument he wrote two successful manuals, Guitar (1965) and Spanish Guitar (1982). He began publishing sf with "Alien Analysis" for New Worlds in January 1952. His first sf novels, Cee-Tee Man (1955) and The Uninhibited (August-October 1957 New Worlds as "Uninhibited"; 1961), were routine adventures, but The Richest Corpse in Show Business (1966) stood out for its slapstick guying of sf conventions. He published the Venturer Twelve Space-Opera series – A Thunder of Stars (1968), Seed of Stars (1972) and The Neutral Stars (1973) all with John Kippax – and the much more interesting Sixth Perception series: The New Minds (1967), The Several Minds (1969), The Mind Trap (1970) and The Country of the Mind (1975). In this latter series, which contains some of his most effective work, a band of people linked by their power of Telepathy solve problems, often in opposition to the world at large. In the later, relatively ambitious singleton, Inside (1971), inhabitants of a huge Underground shelter (see Keep; Pocket Universe) on Mars are told they are actually housed underground on Earth, after a nuclear Holocaust; in the event, they learn that the holocaust was real, and that they have been preserved by Aliens on Mars against the day Homo sapiens may be deemed worthy of proper revival. Though he was not a powerful writer, and though he never transcended the US action-tale conventions to which he was so clearly indebted, it is all the same surprising that Morgan has been ignored. [JC]
see also: ESP; Media Landscape; Music.
Dan Morgan
born Holbeach, Lincolnshire: 24 December 1925
died 4 November 2011
works
series
Venturer Twelve
- A Thunder of Stars (London: Macdonald, 1968) with John Kippax [Venturer Twelve: hb/]
- Seed of Stars (New York: Ballantine Books, 1968) with John Kippax [Venturer Twelve: pb/Vincent Di Fate]
- The Neutral Stars (New York: Ballantine Books, 1973) with John Kippax [Venturer Twelve: pb/Dean Ellis]
Sixth Perception
- The New Minds (London: Corgi Books, 1967) [Sixth Perception: pb/]
- The Several Minds (London: Corgi Books, 1969) [Sixth Perception: pb/William Reid]
- The Mind Trap (London: Corgi Books, 1970) [Sixth Perception: pb/Terry Naysmith]
- The Country of the Mind (London: Corgi Books, 1975) [Sixth Perception: pb/Don Ivan Punchatz]
individual titles
- Cee-Tee Man (London: Hamilton/Panther, 1955) [pb/Josh Kirby]
- The Uninhibited (London: Digit Books, 1961) [first appeared August-October 1957 New Worlds as "Uninhibited": pb/A W]
- The Richest Corpse in Show Business (London: Compact Books, 1966) [pb/Keith Roberts]
- Inside (London: Corgi Books, 1971) [pb/Solution]
- The High Destiny (New York: Berkley Medallion, 1973) [pb/Richard Powers]
- The Concrete Horizon (London: Millington, 1976) [hb/Dave Austin]
links
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