![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Somewhere in the timestream, Josie Bauer is weeping in lament for her dad. Philip José Farmer, one of the last of the Silver Age greats of science fiction, has passed away at the ripe old age of 91 of causes not as yet reported. His obit can be found on the website of his hometown paper here.
For the Riverworld series alone, he deserves eternal installation in the pantheon of writers that includes such Golden Agers as Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke, now all gone to their own rewards. But that was hardly all he wrote—under his own name or his notorious noms de plume such as Kilgore Trout or Cordwainer Bird—nor all he accomplished in his long and rich life. Wikipedia's entry on him contains much of this, but it can only even begin to scratch the surface of all the influence he had on other writers...including a certain now-gray Spider, who slyly paid homage to PJF in his own most famous series. The Wold-Newton family's genealogy, connecting far more famous heroes of fact and fancy than I can possibly recall offhand, was another Farmer achievement.
A grateful fandom thanks you, sir, and wishes you a well-earned rest...assuming, of course, you haven't simply ended up on Riverworld yourself.
For the Riverworld series alone, he deserves eternal installation in the pantheon of writers that includes such Golden Agers as Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke, now all gone to their own rewards. But that was hardly all he wrote—under his own name or his notorious noms de plume such as Kilgore Trout or Cordwainer Bird—nor all he accomplished in his long and rich life. Wikipedia's entry on him contains much of this, but it can only even begin to scratch the surface of all the influence he had on other writers...including a certain now-gray Spider, who slyly paid homage to PJF in his own most famous series. The Wold-Newton family's genealogy, connecting far more famous heroes of fact and fancy than I can possibly recall offhand, was another Farmer achievement.
A grateful fandom thanks you, sir, and wishes you a well-earned rest...assuming, of course, you haven't simply ended up on Riverworld yourself.
