Burns, Alan
Entry updated 19 February 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1929-2013) UK lawyer, academic and author, long resident in the USA; in the UK again after about 1980. Some of his Fabulations at novel length, such as Europe After the Rain (1965), Celebrations (1967), Babel (1969) and Dreamerika!: A Surrealist Fantasy (1972), utilize sf instruments to grapple with a surreal vision of a modern world toppling jaggedly into chaos. His techniques on occasion resemble those adopted by J G Ballard during the 1960s.
With Charles Sugnet he co-edited The Imagination on Trial: British and American Writers Discuss Their Working Methods (anth 1981), a collection of interviews whose subjects include Ballard, John Gardner, Michael Moorcock and Burns himself.
Although an excerpt from Babel appeared in the June 1969 New Worlds, the Alan Burns who published "Citizen's Rights" in Authentic Science Fiction #61, September 1955, and further short sf 1962-1965 in New Worlds, Science Fantasy and the UK Science Fiction Adventures seems to be a different author. [JC/DRL]
Alan Burns
born London: 29 December 1929
died London: December 2013
works (selected)
- Europe After the Rain (London: John Calder, 1965) [hb/from Max Ernst, "Europe After the Rain"]
- Celebrations (London: Calder and Boyars, 1967) [hb/Brian Catchpole]
- Babel (London: Calder and Boyars, 1969) [portion first appeared June 1969 New Worlds: hb/]
- Dreamerika!: A Surrealist Fantasy (London: Calder and Boyars, 1972) [hb/Vanessa Strong]
works as editor
- The Imagination on Trial: British and American Writers Discuss Their Working Methods (London: Allison and Busby, 1981) with Charles Sugnet [nonfiction: anth: Interviews: hb/R B Kitaj]
links
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