Schlobin Selections #4: Samuel R. “Chip” Delany, Jr.

Samuel R. “Chip” Delany, Jr. reading at The Kitchen for an event for Volume 2 of the Encyclopedia Project. June 7, 2011. Photo by Alex Lozupone

Over the next several weeks, we will be highlighting a select number of titles and authors from the James H. and Virginia Schlobin Literature of the Fantastic Collection. Established in 2004 by East Carolina University English Professor Roger C. Schlobin, the James H. and Virginia Schlobin Literature of the Fantastic Collection provides scholarly materials to researchers and students interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. The collection consists of over 3,700 individual books, mostly primary literature in the form of novels, and collected short narratives with some additional secondary literature and scholarly criticism related to the various genres that are represented. The James H. and Virginia Schlobin Literature of the Fantastic Collection also has a related manuscripts collection which consists of nearly 5 cubic feet of materials which can be accessed here.

Born in 1942 in Harlem, New York, Samuel R. “Chip” Delany, Jr. is recognized as one of the most influential African American science fiction writers of the 20th century. Born into a family of prominent African American business owners, civil rights leaders, and religious officials, Delany graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science before enrolling in the City College of New York. After dropping out of college shortly after completing just one semester, Delany would publish his first novel, The Jewels of Aptor, in 1962 at the age of 20, a feat that made many consider the young author a writing prodigy. Delany quickly followed up his first novel with several more works, including The Fall of the Towers trilogy (1963-1965), Empire Star (1966), and Babel-17 (1966) which gave him his first of four Nebula awards. In 1979, Delany introduced readers to his Return to Nevèrÿon series, an eleven-part story that encompassed four volumes published between 1979 and 1987. In total, Delany has written twenty-six novels/novellas as well as a number of other short stories, graphic novels, anthologies, and countless more works of non-fiction. Scholars of the science fiction genre routinely recognized Delany’s works as being part of the “New Wave of Science Fiction” due to his stories “emphasizing cultural speculation, the soft sciences, and mythology, as opposed to technology and the hard sciences.”

Throughout his career, several of Delany’s works have been recognized as award-winning titles. In total, Delany has won the Nebula Award four times, the Hugo and Lambda Awards twice, as well as the Stonewall Book Award, the Brudner Prize, the Inkpot Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Along with these individual awards for various titles, Delany has consistently been praised for his contribution to the science fiction genre and related academic fields throughout his career, In 1997, Delany was given the Kessler Award in recognition of his contributions to LGBTQ Studies. In 2010, the University of California, Riverside (UCR) Libraries awarded him the third J. Lloyd Eaton Lifetime Achievement Award in Science Fiction and in 2013, Delany was named the 30th SFWA Grand Master by the Science fiction Writers of America. Delany was also inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame in 1016 and was presented with the  Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. Along with his writing career, Delany also served as a member of the faculty at SUNY Buffalo, SUny Albany, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Temple University up until he finally retired from the classroom in 2015.

Currently, the James H. and Virginia Schlobin Literature of the Fantastic Collection contains six of Delany’s novels as well as a copy of his anthology Quark/4 which he published alongside his ex-wife Marilyn Hacker. The six titles include; The Einstein Intersection (1967), The Jewels of Aptor (1968), Dhalgren (1975), Tales of Nevèrÿon (1979), Nevèrÿon (1983), and Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985).

Read previous entries from Schlobin Selections here.

Sources:

• “Empmuseum.Org – EXHIBITIONS – SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME – Science Fiction Hall Of Fame”. 2023. Web.Archive.Org. https://web.archive.org/web/20120722083740/http://www.empmuseum.org/exhibitions/index.asp?articleID=929.
• “Samuel R. Delany By K. Leslie Steiner”. 2023. Pseudopodium.Org. http://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/KLeslieSteiner-SamuelRDelany.html.
• “Samuel R. Delany”. 2023. Web.Archive.Org. https://web.archive.org/web/20050121053217/http://www.pcc.com/~jay/delany/