Happy birthday to the iconic grandmaster Michael Moorcock
Not only did the singular Michael Moorcock create numerous legendary characters such as the definitive fantasy anti-hero Elric, the proto-cyberpunk Jerry Cornelius, and arguably the first modern steampunk protagonist Oswald Bastable, but he pioneered the concepts of the multiverse and as the editor of New Worlds, ushered in the New Wave literary movement.
His over 100 novels include notable works such as Stormbringer (1965), The Final Programme (1968), Behold the Man (1969), The Warlord of the Air (1971), Gloriana, or the Unfulfill’d Queen (1978), The War Hound and the World’s Pain (1981), Mother London (1988), and Colonel Pyat sequence (Byzantium Endures [1981], The Laughter of Carthage [1984], Jerusalem Commands [1992], and The Vengeance of Rome [2006]). Recent works include The Sanctuary of the White Friars (The Whispering Swarm [2015], The Woods of Arcady [2023]), Kaboul (2018; French), which completed the My Experiences in the Third World War sequence, a new Elric novel The Citadel of Forgotten Dreams (2022), and Caribbean Crisis & Voodoo Island (2023 with Mark Hodder).
Befitting the seminal nature of his career, Moorcock has been awarded the 1993 British Fantasy Award (Committee Award), 2000 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, 2004 Prix Utopiales “Grandmaster” Lifetime Achievement Award, 2004 Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in the horror genre, 2008 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award and First Fandom Hall of Award (2023). In 2008, The Times named Moorcock in its list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”. Among the numerous accolades for his individual works include the 1967 Nebula Award (Behold the Man), four BFA August Derleth Fantasy Awards (The Knight of the Swords [1972], The King of the Swords [1973], The Sword and the Stallion [1975], and The Hollow Lands [1976]), 1974 British Fantasy Award (Best Short Story, “The Jade Man’s Eyes”), 1977 Guardian Fiction Award (The Condition of Muzak), 1979 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Gloriana), and 1979 World Fantasy Award (Gloriana).
His shorter works have been collected in several volumes including The Deep Fix (1966), The Time Dweller (1969), Moorcock’s Book of Martyrs (1976), The Opium General (1984), Earl Aubec (1993), Lunching with the Antichrist (1995), Tales from the Texas Woods (1997), London Bone (2001), THE BEST OF MICHAEL MOORCOCK (2009), Into the Media Web: Selected Short Non-Fiction, 1956-2006 (2010), and London Peculiar and Other Nonfiction (2012). Among his many edited anthologies are Best SF Stories From New Worlds (1-8; 1968-74), The Traps of Time (1968), Before Armageddon (1975), England Invaded (1977), and The New Nature of the Catastrophe (1993 with Langdon Jones). His work has been adapted into numerous comics and the film The Final Programme (1973) was based on the novel of the same name.
The polymath Moorcock impressive output has also included work in comics, music, film, and criticism. As if all this wasn’t enough, he created the Symbol of Chaos and is the maintainer of The Jack Trevor Story Memorial Cup, whose previous winners include Howard Waldrop, Steve Aylett, and Peter S. Beagle.
All of us at Tachyon wish the extraordinary Michael, a happy birthday. May the winds of limbo continue to roar!
