Leigh Brackett

            Leigh Brackett was an author of science fiction and crime mystery novels, as well as several screen plays. She is most commonly known for her screenwriting for The Empire Strikes Back, a sequel to the first Star Wars movie. However, she greatly contributed to the science fiction genre and has received little credit for doing so. One of Brackett’s most noteworthy contribution to the genre is that she was one of the first female authors to write a novel, The Long Tomorrow, set in a post-apocalyptic society. Although Brackett wrote more crime mystery novels than science fiction, she enjoyed writing science fiction more.

            Brackett first began writing at nine years old, when she would write down events for possible sequels of movies. She, however, did not consider this writing to be serious and considers her “serious” writing to have begun when she was thirteen.

            Before Brackett’s first published work, she wrote several novels, short stories, and poems. Ray Bradbury, whom she had known since she was a child, encouraged her to pursue science fiction as a genre. Her first published science fiction work was not a novel, but instead was a short story for a magazine. She published several more short stories to magazines in the following few years. Brackett’s first published novel was a crime mystery novel, which eventually led her to screenwriting.

            All of Brackett’s science fiction novels had several recurring themes. First, the protagonist is usually a male who is in a hostile environment. The protagonist is often an alien but not always. The antagonist is usually a strong-willed independent female who complicates the mission of the protagonist. The antagonists in her novels usually bring destruction or peril. Another theme throughout Brackett’s novels is exploring what it means to be a human surrounded only by aliens. This theme is established in The Starmen, one of Brackett’s first science fiction novels, and is seen in most of her novels published after this.

            The Long Tomorrow is Brackett’s most well-known work. The novel is more in-depth than most of her other novels in concern to the issues it covers. While it is less dramatic than some of her others works, it is popular due to the themes of “destructive science and blind faith” (Batman) present throughout.

            While Brackett wrote more crime mystery novels in her literary career, it is her science fiction works that are the more well-known of the two. Still, she has not received near the amount of credit needed for her outstanding work in the genre. Writing novels with strong female characters was not something that most women had done during Brackett’s time, and she should be applauded for her fearlessness in doing so.

                                                                                                                       

Works Cited

Batman, Alex. "Leigh (Douglass) Brackett." Twentieth-Century American Science-Fiction Writers. Ed. David Cowart and Thomas L. Wymer. Detroit: Gale, 1981. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 8. Literature Resource Center. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.

Sallis, James. "Martian Quest: the Early Brackett." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Dec. 2003: 28+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.

Silver, Alain, and Elizabeth Ward. "Leigh (Douglass) Brackett." American Screenwriters. Ed. Robert E. Morsberger and Randall Clark. Detroit: Gale, 1984. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 26. Literature Resource Center. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.

Skyler Conley