Samuel R. Delany
Samuel R.
Delany was born on April 1, 1942, in Harlem, New York City. His
mother was a library clerk and his father ran an undertaking service. He
didn’t really have aspirations to become a writer early in his life,
however by the age of 20. This was, The Jewels of Aptor.
Delany graduated high school and went on to attend the City College of
New York. During high school Delany met his future wife, Marilyn Hacker
who would go on to become a poet. They had a daughter together, yet the
marriage only lasted twelve years, as Delany finally accepted that he
was a gay man.
Delany work started with science fiction stories and he has won the
Nebula Award four times, the Hugo Award once and the Stonewall Book
Award once. Later in his career he was inducted into Science Fiction
Hall of Fame for achieving the Nebula Award four times.
After the science fiction, Delany started to write fantasy novels. He
wrote a series of four books in the fantasy genre. He has also written
autobiographical work, creative nonfiction, erotic literature, and is a
literary critic as well.
Delany’s most famous work was his eleventh book, Dhalgren, which went on
to become a bestseller. This could have been the beginning of having
only to write, yet the teaching bug was in Delany’s heart. He still
teaches writing at the graduate level.
Delany’s name if notoriously known for not being spelled correctly; he
has over 60 misspellings in reviews, his publisher once even misspelled
his name on the cover of one of Delaney’s books, and a convention
misspelled his name when he was the guest of honor.
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