Frank Herbert Biography and List of Works

American science-fiction writer, who became famous with his ecological novel DUNE (1965). The epic adventure won the first Nebula for Best Novel, shared the Hugo, and gained a cult status among science fiction readers. Herbert's bestseller was followed by several sequels, exploring the themes of human evolution and hidden psychic powers. A common theme in his work was that our actions often have unforeseen effects on our environment.

  "Why do you test for humans?" he asked.
  "To set you free."
   "Free?"
   "Once men turned their thinking over to machines in hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."
   "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man's mind," Paul quoted.
   "Right out of the Butlerian Jihad and the Orange Catholic Bible," she said.
(from Dune)

Frank Herbert was born in Tacoma, Washington. He began his career as a journalist and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. In 1941 he married Flora Parkinson. They divorced in 1945, and next year he married Ann Stuart. In 1946-47 Herbert studied at the University of Washington, Seattle. He worked as a reporter and editor on a number of West Coast newspapers and wrote speeches for politicians. Herbert worked in Vietnam and Pakistan as a social and ecological studies consultant in 1972 and lecturer in general and interdisciplinary studies at the University of Washington (1970-72). In 1973 he was a director-photographer of the television show 'The Tillers'.

Until 1972, when he began to write full-time, Herbert published socially engaged science fiction. In the 1950s his short stories appeared among others in Startling Stories. During the next decade he was an infrequent contributor to the science fiction magazines, producing fewer than 20 short stories. As a novelist Herbert started with THE DRAGON IN THE SEA in 1955, treating a 21st century submarine as a kind of test environment, in which men must learn to live in accordance with the rules of reality. The book predicted worldwide conflicts over oil consumption and production.

In Dune Hebert plunged into an alien future centred around a complex interplanetary civilization. The book sold over 12 million copies and it was translated into several languages and adapted for the screen. The film (1984), directed by David Lynch, was panned by U.S. critics, but found success in Japan and Europe. The novel blends several themes, the development of PSI powers, intergalactic politics and religion, into a highly complex and entertaining Space Opera. The central character in the story is Paul Atreides, who finds his true self in the sand planet Arrakis, where The Citicens live there like Arabs in the desert. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, a spice that is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity. Along the saga Atreides makes his metamorphosis into a kind of god, his destiny culminating in GOD-EMPEROR OF DUNE (1981).

All of the novels in the series focused on the relations between individuals in conflict over political power. In DUNE MESSIAH (1969) the central problem is Paul's wish to disengage from the restrictions of his being an emperor in order to have an ordinary family life with his beloved Chani. In HERETICS OF DUNE (1984) the planet Arrakis is becoming desert again, sandworms are dying, and the children of Dunes children practice the new power of a heresy called love. CHAPTERHOUSE: DUNE (1985) ended the series. Arrakis has been destroyed. The heirs to Dune's power have colonized a green world, and they are turning it into a homely desert.

  "Isn't it odd, Dama..." No reaction; continue. "... how rebels all too soon fall into olf patterns if they are victorious? It's not so much a pitfall in the path of all governments as it is a delusion waiting for anyone who gains power."
   "Hah! And I thought you would tell me something new. We know that one: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.'"
(from Chapter House Dune)

Herbert's other works include HELLSTROM'S HIVE (1973), in which a human hive has evolved through centuries in North America. In this society the individual's existence is of minor importance; the continuation of the hive as a functioning entity is paramount. THE DOSADI EXPERIMENT (1977) was set in a universe populated by several conflicting alien races. It combined a spy thriller with the theme of overpopulation. Additional themes are psi powers and total mind transference. THE WHITE PLAGUE (1982) was about a madman who creates a disease that kills only women.

In the 1970s and 80s' Herbert worked with Bill Ransom (1945-), and published with him The Pandora trilogy - THE JESUS INCIDENT (1979), THE LAZARUS EFFECT (1983), and THE ASCENSION FACTOR (1988), which explored the relationship between God-"protected" human stock and the natives of Pandora.

Herbert died on February 12, 1986. The last two novels in the Dune series develop a new and different story, which Herbert would have continued if he had lived.

DUNE (film 1984), dir. by David Lynch, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Francesca Annis, Kenneth McMillan, Sting, Sean Young, screenplay by David Lynch, prod. by Dino De Laurentis. Lynch had previously made the cult film Eraserhead (1976) and The Elephant Man (1980), but Dune was considered a failure. However, his next film, Blue Velvet (1986) and the television series Twin Peaks restored his fame as one of the most original modern directors. - See Lynch on Lynch, ed. by Chris Rodley.

For further reading: Herbert's Dune and Other Works by Louis David Allen (1975); Frank Herbert by David M. Miller (1980); Frank Herbert by Timothy O'Reilly (1981); The Dune Encyclopedia, ed. by Willis E. McNelly (1984); Frank Herbert by William F. Touparce (1988); A Frank Herbert Bibliography by Daniel J.H. Levack (1988); The Notebooks of Frank Herbert, ed. by Brian Herbert (1988)

SURVIVAL AND THE ATOM, (1952)