Offutt, Andrew J
Entry updated 18 November 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1934-2013) US author who often signed his name andrew j offutt; his first published story was as by Andy Offutt and his first professional sale was as by A J Offutt. Though that first published story, "And Gone Tomorrow" for If in December 1954, was a contest winner, he regarded his professional sf career as beginning with "Blacksword" in Galaxy for December 1959. He soon became a prolific writer in several genres, both under his own name and under pseudonyms including John Cleve (see below for the Spaceways sequence, the first six written solo, most of the rest in collaboration, but all signed Cleve alone), Jeff Douglas, Farrah Fawkes, Baxter Giles and the House Name J X Williams. Chris Offutt's My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir (2016) engagingly describes Offutt's career as a producer of circa 400 pornographic novels under various pseudonyms, a yet undetermined number of these being sf Sex novels.
Offutt's first sf novel under his own name was the Near Future Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards (1970), in which an underground movement opposes a twenty-first-century Religious tyranny through sexual revolution. The Castle Keeps (1972) more ambitiously depicts – through an acid examination of Survivalist shibboleths – the violent disintegration of Western culture through Overpopulation and Pollution; survivors, who live in armoured Keeps, keep the world at bay. A juvenile, The Galactic Rejects (1973), features three young friends with Psi Powers on a Utopian world threatened by Invasion.
From the mid-1970s, with the appearance of such tales as Messenger of Zhuvastou (1973) and My Lord Barbarian (1977), Offutt turned primarily to fantasy, usually Sword and Sorcery and often works Tied to other authors' creations, though he continued to publish sf erotica as by John Cleve into the 1980s. The War of the Wizards fantasy trio [see Checklist] was written with Richard K Lyon. Offutt's urgent, sometimes rather hasty style and his sharp intelligence were most effectively deployed in sf stories depicting a hectic urban world and, though he clearly found all sorts of material congenial, his later career was not of striking interest, though after an interval he began to publish short fiction again in 2007. [JC]
see also: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Andrew Jefferson Offutt V
born Louisville, Kentucky: 16 August 1934
died Kentucky: 30 April 2013
works
series (selected)
Cormac Mac Art
- Sword of the Gael (New York: Zebra Books, 1975) [tie to the Robert E Howard character: Cormac Mac Art: pb/Jeff Jones]
- The Undying Wizard (New York: Zebra Books, 1976) [tie to the Robert E Howard character: Cormac Mac Art: pb/Jeff Jones]
- Sign of the Moonbow (New York: Zebra Books, 1977) [tie to the Robert E Howard character: Cormac Mac Art: pb/Tom Barber]
- The Mists of Doom (New York: Zebra Books, 1977) [tie to the Robert E Howard character: Cormac Mac Art: pb/Doug Beekman]
- When Death Birds Fly (New York: Ace Books, 1980) with Keith Taylor [tie to the Robert E Howard character: Cormac Mac Art: pb/Ken Kelly]
- The Tower of Death (New York: Ace Books, 1982) with Keith Taylor [tie to the Robert E Howard character: Cormac Mac Art: pb/Glenn Lord]
Conan
- Conan and the Sorcerer (New York: Ace Books/New York: Sunridge Press, 1978) [tie to the Robert E Howard character: Conan: pb/Sanjulian]
- The Sword of Skelos (New York: Bantam Books, 1979) [tie to the Robert E Howard character: Conan: pb/Bob Larkin]
- Conan the Mercenary (New York: Ace Books, 1980) [tie to the Robert E Howard character: Conan: pb/Sanjulian]
War of the Wizards
- The Demon in the Mirror (New York: Pocket Books, 1978) with Richard K Lyon [War of the Wizards: pb/Boris Vallejo]
- The Eyes of Sarsis (New York: Pocket Books, 1980) with Richard K Lyon [War of the Wizards: pb/Rowena Morrill]
- Web of the Spider (New York: Pocket Books/Timescape, 1981) with Richard K Lyon [War of the Wizards: pb/Rowena Morrill]
War of the Gods on Earth
- The Iron Lords (New York: HBJ/Jove, 1979) [War of the Gods on Earth: pb/Rowena Morrill]
- Shadows Out of Hell (New York: Berkley Books, 1980) [War of the Gods on Earth: pb/Rowena Morrill]
- The Lady of the Snowmist (New York: Ace Books, 1983) [War of the Gods on Earth: pb/Tom Kidd]
Spaceways
- Spaceways #1: Of Alien Bondage (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Press, 1982) as by John Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #2: Corundum's Woman (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Press, 1982) as by John Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #3: Escape from Macho (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Press, 1982) as by John Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #4: Satana Enslaved (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Paperbacks, 1982) as by John Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #5: Master of Misfit (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Paperbacks, 1982) as by John Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #6: Purrfect Plunder (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Paperbacks, 1982) as by John Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #7: The Manhuntress (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Press, 1982) as by John Cleve, with Geo W Proctor uncredited [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #8: Under Twin Suns (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Press, 1982) as by John Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #9: The Quest of Qalara (Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Paperbacks, 1983) as by John Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #10: The Yoke of Shen (New York: Berkley Books, 1983) as by John Cleve, with Geo W Proctor uncredited [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #11: The Iceworld Connection (New York: Berkley Books, 1983) as by John Cleve, with Jack C Haldeman II and Vol Haldeman uncredited [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #12: Star Slaver (New York: Berkley Books, 1983) as by John Cleve, with G C Edmondson, writing together as Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #13: Jonuta Rising! (New York: Berkley Books, 1983) as by John Cleve, with Victor Koman [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #14: Assignment: Hellhole (New York: Berkley Books, 1983) as by John Cleve, with Robin Kincaid [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #15: Starship Sapphire (New York: Berkley Books, 1984) as by John Cleve, with Roland Green [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #16: The Planet Murderer (New York: Berkley Books, 1984) as by John Cleve, with Dwight V Swain [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #17: The Carnadyne Horde (New York: Berkley Books, 1984) as by John Cleve, with Victor Koman [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #18: Race Across the Stars (New York: Berkley Books, 1984) as by John Cleve, with Robin Kincaid [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
- Spaceways #19: King of the Slavers (New York: Berkley Books, 1985) as by John Cleve [Spaceways: pb/Ken Barr]
individual titles
Erotic novels, most not sf, are selected only; many titles remain unidentified.
- Her (New York: Leisure Books, 1967) as by J X Williams [pb/Darrel Milsap]
- ESP Orgy (San Diego, California: Greenleaf Classics, 1968) as by J X Williams [pb/Robert Bonfils]
- The Sex Pill (San Diego, California: Phenix Publishers/Pleasure Reader Books, 1968) as by J X Williams [pb/Tomas Cannizarro]
- Barbarana (North Hollywood, California: Brandon House, 1970); as by John Cleve [pb/]
- Jodinareh (North Hollywood, California: Brandon House, 1970); as by John Cleve [pb/]
- Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards (New York: Paperback Library, 1970) [pb/uncredited]
- The Balling Machine (New York: Bee-Line/Orpheus Series, 1971) with D Bruce Berry, writing together as Jeff Douglas [pb/]
- The Great 24-Hour Thing (New York: Orpheus Series, 1971) [pb/]
- The Castle Keeps (New York: Berkley Books, 1972) [pb/Richard Powers]
- The Galactic Rejects (New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1973) [hb/Richard Cuffari]
- Messenger of Zhuvastou (New York: Berkley Medallion, 1973) [pb/Jeff Jones]
- Ardor on Aros (New York: Dell Books, 1973) [pb/Frank Frazetta]
- Manlib! (New York: Orpheus Series, 1974); as by John Cleve [pb/]
- The Sexorcist (New York: Orpheus Series, 1974); as by John Cleve [pb/]
- Unholy Revelry (New York: Beeline Banner Books, 1976) as by John Cleve [vt of the above: pb/]
- Genetic Bomb (New York: Warner Paperback Library, 1975) with D Bruce Berry [pb/Vincent Di Fate]
- Chieftain of Andor (New York: Dell Books, 1976) [pb/]
- Clansman of Andor (London: Robert Hale, 1979) [vt of the above: hb/]
- The Black Sorcerer of the Black Castle (Aberdeen, Maryland: Hall Publications, 1976) [story: chap: a Parody of Robert E Howard's Conan: pb/Ken Raney]
- My Lord Barbarian (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1977) [pb/Boris Vallejo]
- King Dragon (New York: Ace Books, 1980) [pb/Rowena Morrill]
- Deathknight (New York: Ace Books, 1990) [pb/Dorian Vallejo]
works as editor
Swords Against Darkness
- Swords Against Darkness (New York: Zebra Books, 1977) [anth: Swords Against Darkness: pb/Frank Frazetta]
- Swords Against Darkness I (New York: Zebra Books, 1990) [anth: vt of the above: Swords Against Darkness: pb/Frank Frazetta]
- Swords Against Darkness II (New York: Zebra Books, 1977) [anth: Swords Against Darkness: pb/Larry Kresek]
- Swords Against Darkness III (New York: Zebra Books, 1978) [anth: Swords Against Darkness: pb/Greg Theakston]
- Swords Against Darkness IV (New York: Zebra Books, 1979) [anth: Swords Against Darkness: pb/Luis Bermejo]
- Swords Against Darkness V (New York: Zebra Books, 1979) [anth: Swords Against Darkness: pb/Luis Bermejo]
about the author
- Chris Offutt. My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir (New York: Atria Books, 2016) [nonfiction: contains checklist: hb/Keenan]
links
previous versions of this entry