Jack Chalker (2003)

Jack L(aurence) Chalker (1944-2005) was best known for his Well World series of novels. He had over 50 novels published (most of them as part of a series) as well as numerous short stories. At the time of his death, he left behind one unfinished novel, titled Chameleon.

Jack joined the Washington Science Fiction Association during 1958, and founded the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) with two of his friends, in 1963. He was a history and geography teacher in Maryland for 12 years before retiring in 1978 to write full time. Jack served three terms as treasurer of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). The Maryland Young Writers Contest, sponsored by BSFS, was officially renamed “The Jack L. Chalker Young Writers Contest” on April 8, 2006, in his honor.

His awards included the Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award (1979), the Skylark Award (1980), the Daedalus Award (1983), and the Gold Medal of the West Coast Review of Books (1984). He was a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award twice and for the Hugo Award twice (one of them for co-authoring The Science Fantasy Publishers Bibliographic Guide to Small Press Genre Publishers, published by Mirage Press Ltd., in 1991). He was also posthumously awarded the Phoenix Award by the Southern Fandom Confederation on April 9, 2005.

For more information on Jack Chalker’s life and career see his Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_L._Chalker