John Wyndham

Born: 10 July 1903 Warwickshire, England

Died: 11 March 1969 Hampshire, England

Genre: Science Fiction

was an English science fiction writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes. Many of his works were set in post-apocalyptic landscapes.

During the Second World War Wyndham first served as a censor in the Ministry of Information, then joined the army, serving as a Corporal cipher operator in the Royal Corps of Signals. He participated in the Normandy landings, although was not involved in the first days of the operation

 After the war, Wyndham returned to writing, inspired by the success of his brother who had four novels published. He altered his writing style and, by 1951, using the John Wyndham pen name for the first time, wrote the novel The Day of the Triffids. His pre-war writing career was not mentioned in the book's publicity, and people were allowed to assume that it was a first novel from a previously unknown writer.

The book proved to be an enormous success and established Wyndham as an important exponent of science fiction. During his lifetime he wrote and published six more novels under the name John Wyndham. In 1963 he married Grace Wilson, whom he had known for more than 20 years; the couple remained married until he died. He moved out of the Penn Club, London, and lived near Petersfield, Hampshire, just outside the grounds of Bedales School.

He died aged 65 at his home in Petersfield, survived by his wife and brother. Subsequently, some of his unsold work was published and his earlier work re-published.

Works: 

 Early novels published under other pen names

• Foul Play Suspected (1935), as John Beynon
• The Secret People (1935), as John Beynon
• Planet Plane (1935), as John Beynon. Also known as The Space Machine and Stowaway to Mars.

Novels published in his lifetime as by John Wyndham

• The Day of the Triffids (1951), also known as Revolt of the Triffids
• The Kraken Wakes (1953), published in the US as Out of the Deeps
• The Chrysalids (1955), published in the US as Re-Birth
• The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), filmed twice as Village of the Damned
• The Outward Urge (1959)
• Trouble with Lichen (1960)
• Chocky (1968)

Posthumously published novels

• Web (1979)
• Plan for Chaos (2009)

Short story collections published in his lifetime

• Jizzle (1954)
• The Seeds of Time (1956)
• Tales of Gooseflesh and Laughter (1956), US edition featuring stories from the two earlier collections
• Consider Her Ways and Others (1956)
• The Infinite Moment (1961), US edition of Consider Her Ways and Others, with two stories dropped, two others added

Posthumously published collections

• Sleepers of Mars (1973), a collection of five stories originally published in magazines in the 1930s: Sleepers of Mars, Worlds to Barter, Invisible Monster, The Man from Earth and The Third Vibrator
• The Best of John Wyndham (1973)
• Wanderers of Time (1973), a collection of five stories originally published in magazines in the 1930s: Wanderers of Time, Derelict of Space, Child of Power, The Last Lunarians and The Puff-ball Menace (a.k.a. Spheres of Hell)
• Exiles on Asperus (1979)
• No Place Like Earth (2003)