Dan Simmons, award-winning author of 31 novels and short story collections, died February 21. He was 77. His books garnered many honors, including the Hugo, three Bram Stoker Awards for horror, a dozen Locus Awards, and the Shirley Jackson Award. His titles have been translated into at least 20 languages and published in 28 countries.
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| Dan Simmons | |
Simmons wrote in a variety of genres, publishing works of historical fiction, horror, hard-boiled crime, and speculative fiction, as well as exploring topics ranging from Ernest Hemingway's World War II Cuban spy ring to mountain climbing in the Himalayas. In 2018, his novel The Terror (2007) was adapted as a 10-part AMC series. At the time of his death, Simmons was at work completing his next novel, Omega Canyon, to be published by his longtime publisher, Little, Brown.
A native of Peoria, Ill., Simmons's childhood experiences found their way into his horror fiction. After college, he taught sixth grade until his debut novel, Song of Kali, won the 1986 World Fantasy Award. In 1987 he left teaching to become a full-time author.
His other books include Carrion Comfort (1989), Summer of Night (1991), the sci-fi epics Ilium and Olympos, and Drood (2009), based on the last years of Charles Dickens's life. His political thriller Flashback (2011) "was widely criticized as an anti-left rant, imagining a dystopian future where mass immigration, the climate change 'hoax,' 'socialist entitlement programs,' and foreign policy failures under Barack Obama have led to the ruin of America, a 'Second Holocaust,' and the rise of an Islamic New Global Caliphate,' " the Guardian wrote.
In response, Simmons argued that he had written a short story version in 1991 that imagined a post-Reagan U.S., telling an interviewer: "I've been called a Nazi. I've been called a racist. People who have no idea of my life, what I've done, how I've worked for civil rights throughout my life, or what my politics have been, and what Democratic candidates I've written speeches for.... They think I was just going after Obama in the book; well, it used to be Reagan, and if I had waited a few years it would be whoever else would be president."
His obituary noted: "Like his early reading pursuits, Dan always wrote about what he loved. He defied literary norms by writing across genres, switching between major publishers, and defying pressure to conform to formulaic novels. Dan was a profoundly curious learner who delighted in connecting with other curious minds, and the many stories he dreamed up helped him connect with others throughout his entire life."