With the recent death of Albert Hofmann, the inventor of LSD, it's a perfect time to travel back in time and assess how Hofmann's generation helped shape their future — in other words, our present day. Luckily the Boston Globe's Joshua Glenn is here to help you sort it all out. In a recent post on his Brainiac blog, Glenn writes about the "Partisan Generation," which includes Hofmann as well as Joseph "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" Campbell. This generation, born 1904-13, also includes a generation of science fiction writers who made SF mainstream.

Glenn writes:

I just blogged about the generation of Americans (born 1904-13) who I call the Partisans. Not only did they give us the editors of the great intellectual-literary journal Partisan Review, not to mention the inventors of the atom bomb, LSD, Scientology, and Bugs Bunny, as well as most of the actors who played villains on the 1960s "Batman" show. Their cohort also includes Golden Age and pre-Golden Age SF and sword & sorcery pioneers like Robert E. Howard, Robert A. Heinlein, Fritz Lieber, L. Sprague de Camp, L. Ron Hubbard, Fredric Brown, Jack Finney, Nelson S. Bond, Ross Rocklynne, Clifford D. Simak, and Alfred Bester. Plus C.L. Moore, one of the first women science fiction authors, and comic strip artist Alex Raymond, who created Flash Gordon. Plus the influential science fiction journal editor John W. Campbell; Donald A. Wollheim falls just outside this group, though he was no doubt Partisan-oriented. We might also include those authors born in other countries, or whom we don't usually associate with SF: A.E. van Vogt, A. Bertram Chandler, Eric Frank Russell, Ayn Rand ("Atlas Shrugged"), Samuel Beckett ("Endgame"), Hergé ("The Shooting Star"), Pierre Boulle ("Planet of the Apes"), Louis L'Amour ("The Haunted Mesa"), Mervyn Peake ("Gormenghast") and B.F. Skinner ("Walden Two"). Also, I consider Orwell (b. 1903) an honorary Partisan, not only because of his partisan attitude and collaboration with American radical intellectuals born in the 1904-13 generation, but because of "1984." Finally there's Joseph Campbell, without whom no "Star Wars."

You've got to check out Glenn's whole writeup of this generation, without which we would have no Star Wars, no psychedelic 70s trip sequences, and no grokking.

The Partisans [Brainiac]

8:20 AM on Thu May 1 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,116 views
21 comments

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ManchuCandidate at 08:33 AM on 05/01/08
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L. Ron Hubbard? Shouldn't he be listed under other? When I hear about SF pioneers and greats, L. Ron isn't exactly high on my list or anywhere near my list.
Ed Grabianowski at 08:35 AM on 05/01/08
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Connectedness Index: 55

Any day that includes both C.L. Moore and Robert E. Howard is a good day.
Rasselas at 08:46 AM on 05/01/08
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I would very much like to glimpse what Robert E. Howard might have created, had he not killed himself so early, had he left Cross Plains for the Hollywood or New York of the '30s, had he lived as long as some of those people.
Belabras at 08:51 AM on 05/01/08
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Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber, with a little help from Micheal Moorcock, practically created the Sword & Sorcery genre. So thanks for that.

Regarding Hubbard - he's a sci-fi writer sure, but I wouldn't have called him a great one.
Gyrus at 09:04 AM on 05/01/08
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@ManchuCandidate: Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing. Old L Ron isn't exactly on my shortlist of major cultural contributors. Hack novels and UFO cults aside could arguably be counted as cultural contributors but that's stretching it a bit.
JesusDeSaad at 09:13 AM on 05/01/08
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The coolest part of this whole article, is that I have the entire Frazetta cover CONAN series, INCLUDING Conan The Adventurer shown above, still intact from the time my uncle bought them.

They truly are a sight for sore eyes.
JesusDeSaad at 09:20 AM on 05/01/08
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The best bit about this article is the photo. I HAVE THAT BOOK! Long live Frazetta.
Scorpi at 09:25 AM on 05/01/08
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Hmmm... Joseph Campbell should be added to that list of must-reads for SF
Jeff-Minor at 09:27 AM on 05/01/08
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So is it true that Hubbard made a bet that he could invent an idiotic relgion and people would still buy into it? He won the bet, I guess.
braak at 09:39 AM on 05/01/08
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@Jeff-Minor: It is generally accepted as an apocryphal story.

Though I believe it's true that he said, "If you really wanted to make a million dollars, you'd start a religion."
Asari at 09:41 AM on 05/01/08
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I think the point of including LR Hubbard is because he is someone of great influence who used "sci-fi" ideas. Nobody's claiming he's a great master of sci-fi, though his many followers would surely disagree. And for sure, his connection with Aliester Crowley, Jack Parsons, the OTO, and the Babalon working connects him with all kinds of profound craziness involving UFOs, the space program, and modern magickal tradition.
Gyrus at 10:05 AM on 05/01/08
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@braak: I don't know if it's apocryphal or not. At least 2 people have claimed to have heard L Ron make that statement. Of course, one of them was Harlan Ellison so...
skallagrimsson at 10:06 AM on 05/01/08
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@Jeff-Minor: Here's Ellison talking about L. Ron and that time...

+ Watch video
GiulioEteocles at 10:32 AM on 05/01/08
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Comment on Meet the "Partisan Generation" That Gave You LSD, Conan, and Joseph Campbell Thanks for the shout-out, io9. I agree that L Ron Hubbard is not one of the great or influential SF writers, but what can you say -- he did write a lot of SF. I have the same paperback edition of Conan -- my older cousin sent me a whole box of 'em in the early '80s. So awesome.
ltwass at 10:33 AM on 05/01/08
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@JesusDeSaad:
My uncle, who's only a few years older than I am, used to have them all. Until crazy Grandma threw them out! Arrrghhhh!

Many an afternoon was frittered away with those great books.
RAHfanboy at 11:14 AM on 05/01/08
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Not to start a flood of missing author posts, but no Asimov?
bellil at 12:14 PM on 05/01/08
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RAHFanboy - Asimov was 1920 I believe, their cutoff was 1913.
Einstein-Intersection at 01:05 PM on 05/01/08
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@Scorpi:

Spiritual fiction?
RAHfanboy at 07:31 PM on 05/01/08
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@bellil: I sit corrected. Thanks. (He seemed older!)
Silver_Back at 09:00 PM on 05/01/08
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Mongol General: "Conan! What is best in life?"

Conan: "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."

Ah, Conan. A man's man. However, try watching the movies while using LSD. I'm sure it won't be pretty.
laughingacademy at 10:41 AM on 05/02/08
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He doesn't associate A.E. van Vogt with science fiction? Must not have read Slan. Its the ultimate fanboy fantasy: the hero is a member of a scorned but gifted minority whose parents die to save his life and leave him a hidden laboratory full of awesome gadgets. He also meets two women: a tough brunette willing to, ahem, show him the ropes, and a blonde who needs rescuing.