"A Million Tomorrow", "A Man from Two Times", "Palace of Eternity" and many other works by Bob Shaw, the writer who foresaw most modern science fiction plots, is known to every fan of the genre. A native of Ireland, having tried dozens of professions, he became one of the classics of fantastic prose of the 20th century, and among his admirers, for example, Stephen King himself.
Biography
Robert Shaw was born in the capital of Northern Ireland, a port town called Belfast in the winter of 1931 to the family of a police officer. The future famous writer was the eldest son in the family, he had two younger brothers and a caring mother, who interested the boys in reading from childhood. In addition, during the Second World War, American troops passed through Ireland, leaving their magazines in the homes of local residents, where there was enough prose, including fantastic. Bob, at the age of 11, began to try to write, admired by the work of his contemporary Alfred Van Vogt.
After graduating from school, Bob Shaw applied to Belfast University of Technology, where he joined the Irish Fandom, an association of amateur science fiction writers. After university, Robert worked as a steel engineer, airplane designer, designer, journalist, taxi driver, telegraph correspondent, but all this time he did not stop sketching and writing down his ideas.
Writing career
Bob Shaw first published his story "Aspect" in the amateur press in 1954. In the same year, a co-authored novel, The Enchanted Duplicator, was released. Shaw's fiction combines his knowledge of technique and the depth of his character.
Bob Shaw became a professional writer only in 1975, after receiving the Hugo Prize for the story "Light of the Past", which describes the amazing technology of slow passage of light through glass, with which you can see pictures from the past. This "invention" is inscribed in a deep life story with a central drama that can cause tears. Later, the writer reworked the story into a novel.
His own technological developments and nuances of life were reflected in the writer's work. For example, he suffered all his life with migraines with visual impairments, and reflected this in his book "The Man of Two Worlds", making migraines almost a key fact of time travel. At one time he drank hard and even considered himself an alcoholic, but managed to stop. The writer is the founder of the Birmingham sci-fi group with Brian Aldiss and Harry Harrison, who cosplay their characters.
Over the forty years of his career, Bob Shaw has released 25 novels and several collections of short stories. After the death of the writer, the Pixar cartoon "The Adventures of Flick" (1998) and the animated film "Hercules" (1997), in which Bob Shaw was the screenwriter of some episodes, were released.
Personal life
Robert's first wife was Sarah Gurley, whom he affectionately called Sadie. She gave birth to a son and two daughters to her husband, and at that time (1956-1958) the Shaw family lived in Canada, and Bob himself worked as an aircraft designer. The action of the novel "Dizziness" takes place exactly there, on the spacious pastures of the Canadian province of Alberta. The family soon returned to Ireland, but during the Troubles of the 70s, Bob and Sadie left for England. In 1991, Sarah passed away, and Bob was left alone and depressed.
In 1995, the writer remarried an American woman, Nancy Tucker, moved to live in the United States, but soon returned home to spend the last months of his life at home. The famous science fiction writer died in February 1996 from cancer. Once he said that the Universe is beautiful, but only when there is one who sees it …
