Leigh Brackett - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

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Leigh Brackett (December 7, 1915 - March 18, 1978) was a writer of science fantasy and science fiction, mystery novels and — best known to the general public — Hollywood screenplays, most notably The Big Sleep (1945), Rio Bravo (1959), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Career overview

Leigh Douglass Brackett was born in Los Angeles, California.

Her first published science fiction story was "Martian Quest", which appeared in the February 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Her first novel, "No Good from a Corpse", published in 1944, was a hard-boiled mystery novel in the tradition of Raymond Chandler. Hollywood director Howard Hawks was so impressed by this novel that he had his secretary call in "this guy Brackett" to help William Faulkner write the script for The Big Sleep (1946). The film, starring Humphrey Bogart and written by Leigh Brackett, William Faulkner, and Jules Furthman, is considered one of the best movies ever made in the genre.

In 1946, Brackett married science fiction author Edmond Hamilton, and may well have had a positive influence on the quality of his own writing, given that the characters in his own Captain Future series became more complex after the marriage. In the same year, Planet Stories published one of Brackett's most influential short fiction works, the novella Lorelei of the Red Mist, a collaboration with Ray Bradbury.

While Brackett published mainly short fiction in the 1940s, she concentrated on longer works of fiction in the fifties and early sixties. By the mid-1950s, however, most of Brackett's writing was for the more lucrative film and television markets. She returned to science fiction in the seventies with the publication of The Ginger Star (1974), The Hounds of Skaith (1974) and The Reavers of Skaith (1976), collected as The Book of Skaith in 1976, reusing an earlier character, Eric John Stark, but setting his adventures upon the extrasolar planet of Skaith instead of in the solar system.

Most of Brackett's science fiction is best characterized as either space opera or planetary romance. Almost all of Brackett's planetary romances take place within a common invented universe, the Leigh Brackett Solar System. Many of these stories take place on fictional versions of Mars and Venus which reflect the science-fictional consensus of the 1930s-1950s (Mars as a marginally habitable desert world, Venus as a primitive, wet jungle planet), but rendered in richer detail than usual among pulp writers. Brackett's Mars is an arid, dying planet, populated by ancient, decadent and mostly humanoid races (see Mars in fiction). Brackett's seventies venue Skaith is less arid but otherwise similar.

The fact that the settings of Brackett's stories range from a rocket-crowded interplanetary space to the superstitious backwaters of primitive or decadent planets allows her a great deal of scope for variation in style and subject matter. In a single story, Brackett can veer from space opera to hard-boiled detective fiction to Western to the borders of Celtic-inspired fantasy. Brackett cannot, therefore, be easily classified as a Sword and planet science fantasy writer; though swords and spears may show up in the most primitive regions of her planets, guns, blasters and electric-shock generators are more common weapons.

Despite inevitable comparisons between Brackett and Edgar Rice Burroughs, the differences between their versions of Mars are arguably more significant than the obvious similarities. For one thing, Brackett's Mars is set firmly in a world of interplanetary commerce and competition, and one of the most prominent themes of Brackett's stories is the clash of planetary civilizations; the stories both illustrate and critique the effects of colonialism among both older and younger civilizations than those of the colonizers, and thus have relevance even today. Burroughs' themes are almost the opposite; his stories typically involve an 'enlightened' hero from a familiar culture (usually an American) singlehandedly overthrowing the ostensibly corrupt or false religions and governments of the culture into which he intrudes, with minimal sympathy for opposing viewpoints. Brackett's imaginative cultures are also more consistent, and her characters more psychologically intricate, than is usual in Burroughs' science fiction stories.

Eric John Stark, Brackett's most memorable character, is sometimes compared to Robert E. Howard's Conan, but is in many respects closer to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan or Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli. Stark, an orphan from earth, is raised by the semi-sentient aboriginals of Mercury, who are later killed by earthmen. He is saved from the same fate by a terran official, who adopts Stark and becomes his mentor. When threatened, however, Eric John Stark frequently reverts to the primitive N'Chaka, the "man without a tribe" he was on Mercury. Thus, Stark is the archetypical modern man—a beast with a thin veneer of civilization.

Brackett's critically most acclaimed science fiction novels are The Sword of Rhiannon (1953) and The Long Tomorrow (1955). The former is most memorable for its vivid description of Mars before its oceans evaporated. The latter describes an agrarian, deeply technophobic society that develops after a nuclear war, and is singled out for praise because of its more obvious relevance to the present rather than its stylistic merits.

The Empire Strikes Back

Brackett worked on the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back. The movie won the Hugo Award in 1981. This script was a departure for Brackett, since until then, all of her science fiction had been in the form of novels and short stories rather than screenplays.

The exact role which Brackett played in writing the script for Empire is the subject of a small controversy. What is agreed on by all is that George Lucas asked Brackett to write the screenplay for Empire based on his story outline. It is also known that Brackett wrote a finished first draft of the screenplay, which was delivered to Lucas shortly before Brackett's death from cancer on March 18, 1978. The screenplay was revised for filming by Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan, and both Brackett and Kasdan (though not Lucas) were given credit for the final script.

However, the exact relationship between Brackett's draft script and the revised shooting script is not agreed on at all. Many reviewers have believed that they could detect traces of Brackett's influence in both the dialogue and the treatment of the space opera genre in Empire[1].

However, Laurent Bouzereau in his book Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays states that Lucas disliked the direction of Brackett's screenplay and discarded it. He then produced two screenplays before turning the results over to Kasdan, who did not work directly with Brackett's script at all [2]. According to this scenario, Lucas' assignment of credit to Brackett was a mere courtesy or mark of respect for the work Brackett had done during her illness. Support for this view comes from Stephen Haffner, owner of the press that printed Martian Quest: The Early Brackett, who has read Brackett's script, and claims that -- outside Lucas' storyline -- nothing of Brackett's personal contributions to the script survives into the finished movie. [3] [4]

Brackett's screenplay has never been published. According to Haffner, it can be read at the library of the Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico, but may not be copied or borrowed off-site.

Bibliography

Short fiction

1940-1944

Martian Quest (Astounding Science Fiction February 1940)
The Treasure of Ptakuth (Astounding April 1940)
The Stellar Legion (Planet Stories Winter 1940)
The Tapestry Gate (Strange Stories August 1940)
The Demons of Darkside (Startling Stories January 1941)
Water Pirate (Super Science Stories January 1941)
Interplanetary Reporter (Startling Stories May 1941)
The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter (Planet Stories Summer 1941) also published as The Dragon-Queen of Venus
Lord of the Earthquake (novelette; Science Fiction (magazine) June 1941)
No Man's Land in Space (novelette; Amazing Stories July 1941)
A World Is Born (Comet Stories July 1941)
Retreat to the Stars (Astonishing Stories November 1941)
Child of the Green Light (Super Science Stories February 1942)
The Sorcerer of Rhiannon (novelette; Astounding February 1942)
Child of the Sun (novelette; Planet Stories Spring 1942)
Out of the Sea (novelette; Astonishing Stories June 1942)
Cube from Space (Super Science Stories August 1942)
Outpost on Io (Planet Stories Winter 1942)
The Halfling (novelette; Astonishing Stories February 1943)
The Citadel of Lost Ships (Planet Stories March 1943)
The Blue Behemoth (Planet Stories May 1943)
Thralls of the Endless Night (Planet Stories Fall 1943)
The Jewel of Bas (novelette; Planet Stories Spring 1944)
The Veil of Astellar (novelette; Thrilling Wonder Stories Spring 1944)
Terror Out of Space (Planet Stories Summer 1944)
Shadow Over Mars (Startling Stories Fall 1944) published in book form as The Nemesis from Terra

1945-1949

The Vanishing Venusians (novelette; Planet Stories Spring 1945)
Lorelei of the Red Mist (novella; Planet Stories Summer 1946), with Ray Bradbury
The Moon That Vanished (novelette; Thrilling Wonder Stories October 1948)
The Beast-Jewel of Mars (novelette; Planet Stories Winter 1948)
Quest of the Starhope (Thrilling Wonder Stories April 1949)
Sea-Kings of Mars (Thrilling Wonder Stories June 1949) published in book form as The Sword of Rhiannon
Queen of the Martian Catacombs (Planet Stories Summer 1949) expanded and published in book form as The Secret of Sinharat
Enchantress of Venus (novella; Planet Stories Fall 1949) also published as City of the Lost Ones
The Lake of the Gone Forever (novelette; Thrilling Wonder Stories October 1949)

1950-1954

The Dancing Girl of Ganymede (novelette; Thrilling Wonder Stories February 1950)
The Truants (novelette; Startling Stories July 1950)
The Citadel of Lost Ages (novella; Thrilling Wonder Stories December 1950)
Black Amazon of Mars (Planet Stories March 1951) expanded and published in book form as People of the Talisman
The Starmen of Llyrdis (Startling Stories March 1951)
The Woman from Altair (novelette; Startling Stories July 1951)
The Shadows ( Startling Stories February 1952)
The Last Days of Shandakor (novelette; Startling Stories April 1952)
Shannach - The Last (novelette; Planet Stories November 1952)
The Ark of Mars (Planet Stories September 1953) later published as part of the book Alpha Centauri or Die!
Mars Minus Bisha (Planet Stories January 1954)
Runaway (Startling Stories Spring 1954)
Teleportress of Alpha C (Planet Stories Winter 1954/1955) later published as part of the book Alpha Centauri or Die!

1955-1965

The Tweener (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction February 1955)
Last Call from Sector 9G (Planet Stories Summer 1955)
The Other People (novelette; Venture Science Fiction March 1957) - also published as The Queer Ones
All the Colors of the Rainbow (novelette; Venture Science Fiction November 1957)
The Road to Sinharat (novelette; Amazing Stories May 1963)
Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction October 1964)

After 1965

Come Sing the Moons of Moravenn (The Other Side of Tomorrow, 1973)
How Bright the Stars (Flame Tree Planet: An Anthology of Religious Science-Fantasy, 1973)
Mommies and Daddies (Crisis, 1974)
Stark and the Star Kings (2005), with Edmond Hamilton (in the collection of the same name)

Novels

Shadow Over Mars (1951) - first published 1944; published in US as The Nemesis from Terra (1961)
The Starmen (1952) - also published as The Galactic Breed (1955, abridged), The Starmen of Llyrdis (1976)
The Sword of Rhiannon (1953) - first published as Sea-Kings of Mars (1949)
The Big Jump (1955)
The Long Tomorrow (1955)
Alpha Centauri or Die! (1963) - fixup of The Ark of Mars (1953) and Teleportress of Alpha C (1954)
The Secret of Sinharat and People of the Talisman (1964) - expansions of Queen of the Martian Catacombs (1949) and Black Amazon of Mars (1951) respectively, packaged back-to-back as an Ace Double novel; republished under one title as Eric John Stark, Outlaw of Mars (1982)

Skaith novels

The Ginger Star (1974) - first published as a two-part serial in Worlds of if, February and April 1974
The Hounds of Skaith (1974)
The Reavers of Skaith (1976)

Collections

The Coming of the Terrans (1967)
- Includes The Beast-Jewel of Mars, Mars Minus Bisha, The Last Days of Shandakor, Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon, and The Road to Sinharat.
The Halfling and Other Stories (1973)
- Includes The Halfling, The Dancing Girl of Ganymede, The Citadel of Lost Ages, All the Colors of the Rainbow, The Shadows, Enchantress of Venus, and The Lake of the Gone Forever.
The Book of Skaith (1976) - omnibus edition of the three Skaith novels
The Best of Leigh Brackett (1977), ed. Edmond Hamilton
- Includes The Jewel of Bas, The Vanishing Venusians, The Veil of Astellar, The Moon that Vanished, Enchantress of Venus, The Woman from Altair, The Last Days of Shandakor, Shannach — The Last, The Tweener, and The Queer Ones.
Martian Quest: The Early Brackett (2000)
- Includes all of Brackett's early short stories published up to March 1943.
Stark and the Star Kings (2005), with Edmond Hamilton
- Includes Queen of the Martian Catacombs, Enchantress of Venus, Black Amazon of Mars, Stark and the Star Kings (collaboration with Hamilton)
Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories (2005) - Volume 46 in Gollancz's Fantasy Masterworks series
- Includes The Sorcerer of Rhiannon, The Jewel of Bas, Terror out of Space, Lorelei of the Red Mist, The Moon that Vanished, Sea-Kings of Mars, Queen of the Martian Catacombs, Enchantress of Venus, Black Amazon of Mars, The Last Days of Shandakor, The Tweener, and The Road to Sinharat

As editor

The Best of Planet Stories No. 1 (anthology; 1975)
The Best of Edmond Hamilton (collection; 1977)

Other genres

No Good from a Corpse (crime novel; 1944)
Stranger at Home (crime novel; 1946) - ghost-writer for the actor George Sanders
An Eye for an Eye (crime novel; 1957) - adapted for television as Markham (1959-60; CBS)
The Tiger Among Us (crime novel; 1957; UK 1960 as Fear No Evil), filmed as 13 West Street (1962; dir. Philip Leacock)
Follow the Free Wind (western novel; 1963) - received the Spur Award from Western Writers of America
Rio Bravo (western novel; 1959) - novelization based on the screenplay by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett
Silent Partner (crime novel; 1969)

External links

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