Michael Moorcock

Michael Moorcock
Moorcock in 2006
Moorcock in 2006
BornMichael John Moorcock
(1939-12-18) 18 December 1939 (age 84)
London, England
Pen name
  • Bill Barclay
  • William Ewert Barclay
  • Michael Barrington (with Barrington J. Bayley)
  • Edward P. Bradbury
  • James Colvin
  • Warwick Colvin Jr.
  • Desmond Reid (shared)
OccupationNovelist, journalist, script writer, musician, editor
Period1957–present
GenreScience fiction, fantasy, literary fiction
SubjectScience fiction (as editor)
Literary movementNew Wave science fiction
Notable worksNew Worlds (as editor)
Mother London
Pyat Quartet (novels)
Website
www.michaelmoorcock.net

Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.[1]

As editor of the British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States, leading to the advent of cyberpunk.[2][3] His publication of Bug Jack Barron (1969) by Norman Spinrad as a serial novel was notorious; in Parliament, some British MPs condemned the Arts Council of Great Britain for funding the magazine.[4] In 2008, The Times named Moorcock in its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[5]

Moorcock is also a recording musician; he has contributed to the music acts Hawkwind, Blue Öyster Cult, Robert Calvert and Spirits Burning, and to his own project, Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix.

  1. ^ "Michael Moorcock". The Nebula Awards. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Archived from the original on 2 April 2008. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference butler-2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference latham-2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Michael Ashley, Transformations: Volume 2 in the History of the Science Fiction Magazine, 1950–1970 (Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 2005), p. 250.
  5. ^ "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945" Archived 25 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine. 5 January 2008. The Times. Retrieved April 22, 2020.