Richard C. Meredith

Richard Carlton Meredith (1937 – 1979), also known as "Richard C. Meredith", was a science fiction author. He is mainly known for the SF novels he wrote before dying at age 41.

Biography

Born on October 21, 1937, in Alderson, West Virginia in the United States. First son of Joseph and LaVon Meredith, during the second world war the family moved to St. Albans, where his father was employed as a technician in an industrial laboratory which worked synthetic gum, used at that time to replace natural one, whose sources were monopolized by the Japanese (1).

During these years, while attending high school and then first year at university, Meredith approached science fiction literature for the first time, and started reading novels by Robert A. Heinlein. In 1950 he bought his first copy of "Astounding", of which he collected all issues until death of the editor John W. Campbell, in 1971. In this period he also wrote his first short stories, but his intention was to become an astronomer (1).

In 1956, owing to an economic crisis in West Virginia, the family moved to Florida, where, not finding a job, Meredith joined the Army, and had the chance to attend courses and achieve specific technical skills. He became a microwave systems technician and also was a theory of communication and air navigation trainer. Back in civilian life, he reached his family in Pensacola and got back to University. This was the time he wrote his first action short stories, which were published in magazines for men only. After the birth of his first daughter, Kira Chimene, from his second marriage with Joy Gates, he thought he could write for the science fiction market (1).

In 1969, when he was father of three more sons (two twins, Jefferson Conan and Derek Carlton, and another boy, Rand Calvin), Ballantine Books bought and published his first two novels, "The Sky is Filled with Ships" and "We All Died at Breakaway Station" (1).

In 1970, to maintain his numerous family, Meredith started working also as a graphic designer at a weekly magazine in Florida, the "Press Gazette", where he was in charge of the comic-strip page. It was in the same year at DeepSouthCon 8, known as "Agacon '70" in Atlanta, Georgia that he was awarded the very first Phoenix Award for professional contributions to southern science fiction fandom. [ [http://scenic-city.com/sfrg/deepsouthcon.htm 'A Brief History of DeepSouthCon'] ]

In 1973 his first paperback novel "At the Narrow Passage" was published by Playboy Press. He was also a mainstream writer, and author of erotic poems; he collaborated with other magazines and TV channels and was an oil painter as well (1).

In 1975 Meredith had to face the tragedy of the death of his son Jeff, drowned during a trip by boat (1). He was only 41, when he died in 1979 from brain haemorrage.

Themes

Meredith's works take up with considerable originality many familiar SF themes: A human Galactic Empire and its struggle with a non-human rival ("We All Died at Breakaway Station") or with independence-seeking human subjects ("The Sky Is Filled with Ships"); a theocratic dictatorship, nuclear and biological warfare, and the effort to change history by time travel ("Run, Come See Jerusalem!"); or the "sidewise" travel into a alternate histories and the savage struggle for control over a multitude of divergent timelines (The "Timeliner" trilogy).

Whatever the specific situation, Meredith's protagonists tend to be highly motivated and devoted people, wholeheartedly taking up Earth- or Universe-shaking Causes to which they give their all - and often eventually discovering that they had been duped into serving an evil cause, or that an action taken with the best of intentions actually makes a bad situation even worse. A reader opening a Meredith book can by no means count on a happy end - indeed, some of the books can be classed as dystopias. At best, Meredith's protagonists need to rest content with a partial or conditional victory, the merely temporary aversion of disaster.

Bibliography

Novels and Novellas

*The "Timeliner" trilogy:
** "At the Narrow Passage" (1973)
***1st ed paperback: Berkeley Medallion, 1973
***Playboy Press Science Fiction, September 1979
** "No Brother, No Friend" (1976)
***Playboy Press Science Fiction, October 1979
** "Vestiges of Time" (1978)
***Playboy Press Science Fiction, November 1979
*"We All Died at Breakaway Station" (1968 in "Amazing Stories", published as a full novel in 1969)
*"The Sky Is Filled with Ships", 1st ed: Ballantine (Science Fiction) Books, 1969
*"Run, Come See Jerusalem!" 1st ed paperback: Ballantine (Science Fiction) Books. 1976
*"The Awakening" (1979)

hort stories

*"Choice of Weapons" (1966)
*"To the War is Gone" (1966)
*"The Fifth Columbiad" (1966)
*"The Longest Voyage" (1966)
*"Hired Man" (1970)
*"Earthcoming", The Future Is Now, ed William F Nolan, pg 41-66, published by Playboy Press Science Fiction (1970)
*"Time of Sending" (1978)
*"Cold the Stars are, Cold the Earth" (1978)

References

# A response to the Italian editor by R. C. Meredith, from the preface to ‘’Mercenari del tempo’’, Italian translation of the novel "At the narrow passage", Editore Fanucci, Italy 1978