R. A. Lafferty facts for kids

Quick facts for kids R. A. Lafferty
Lafferty in his library in 1998
Born	Raphael Aloysius Lafferty (1914-11-07)November 7, 1914 Neola, Iowa, U.S.
Died	March 18, 2002(2002-03-18) (aged 87) Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist, short story author
Genre	Science fiction, Fantasy
Notable works	Okla Hannali, Past Master, Nine Hundred Grandmothers

Raphael Aloysius "R. A." Lafferty (born November 7, 1914 – died March 18, 2002) was an American writer. He was famous for his unique science fiction and fantasy stories. Lafferty was known for using language, metaphors, and story structures in very original ways. He also wrote books about his own life, a history book, and several historical novels.

About R. A. Lafferty

Lafferty was born on November 7, 1914, in Neola, Iowa. His parents were Hugh David Lafferty and Julia Mary Burke. They were both very religious Catholics. Raphael was the youngest of five children. His first name, Raphael, came from the day he was expected to be born, which was the Feast of St. Raphael. When he was four years old, his family moved to Perry, Oklahoma.

He finished school at Cascia Hall Preparatory School. He grew up during the early years of the Great Depression, a time when many people had little money. Later, he went to night school at the University of Tulsa for two years, starting in 1933. He mostly studied Math and German but left before getting a degree. After that, he worked for Clark Electric Co. in Tulsa from 1939 to 1942. During this time, he also took classes through the International Correspondence School.

Lafferty lived most of his life in Tulsa with his sister, Anna Lafferty. In 1942, he joined the U.S. Army. He trained in Texas, North Carolina, Florida, and California. Then, he was sent to the South Pacific Area. He served in Australia, New Guinea, Morotai, and the Philippines. When he left the Army in 1946, he was a staff sergeant. He also received an Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal. Lafferty never got married.

He did not start writing until the 1950s. But once he started, he wrote a lot! He wrote 32 novels and over 200 short stories. Most of these stories were science fiction. His first story, "The Wagons," was published in 1959. His first science fiction story, "Day of the Glacier," came out in 1960. His first novel, Past Master, was published in 1968.

Until 1971, Lafferty worked as an electrical engineer. After that, he spent all his time writing. Around 1980, he had a stroke, which made it harder for him to write as much. He stopped writing regularly in 1984. In 1994, he had another, more serious stroke. He passed away on March 18, 2002, at the age of 87. He died in a nursing home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Lafferty's writings, old papers, and other items were given to the University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library. Other writings are kept at the University of Iowa's Library. His funeral was held at Christ the King Catholic Church in Tulsa, where he often went to church. He is buried in St. Rose Catholic Cemetery in Perry.

Lafferty's Unique Stories

Lafferty's writing style was very unusual and fun. He often used traditional storytelling methods, especially from Irish and Native American cultures. His stories often featured "shaggy-dog characters" and were like tall tales. This made his science fiction very different from others. His stories were also influenced by his Catholic beliefs. For example, his novel Fourth Mansions was inspired by The Interior Mansions by Teresa of Avila.

It's not easy to put Lafferty's writings into a simple category. The plot, or main story, was often less important than other parts of his writing. Because of his unique style, he gained a loyal group of fans. However, some readers found his work difficult to follow.

Not all of Lafferty's books were science fiction or fantasy. His novel Okla Hannali (1972) tells the story of the Choctaw people. It covers their history in Mississippi and, after the Trail of Tears, in Oklahoma. The book follows a larger-than-life character named Hannali and his big family. The famous novelist Dee Brown, who wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, really liked this novel. He said that Lafferty told the Choctaw history in a new way. He also said that Hannali was a "buffalo bull of a man" who should become a famous character in Native American literature.

Lafferty's unpublished writings are managed by the Virginia Kidd Literary Agency. This includes more than a dozen novels, like In The Akrokeraunian Mountains, and about 80 short stories.

Novels by R. A. Lafferty

Science fiction novels

• Past Master (1968)
• The Reefs of Earth (1968)
• Space Chantey (1968); this book retells the story of the Odyssey in a science fiction setting.
• Fourth Mansions (1969)
• The Devil is Dead (1971)
• Arrive at Easterwine: The Autobiography of a Ktistec Machine (1971)
• Not to Mention Camels (1976)
• Archipelago (1979)
• Aurelia (1982)
• Annals of Klepsis (1983)
• Serpent's Egg (1987)
• East of Laughter (1988)
• How Many Miles to Babylon? (1989)
• The Elliptical Grave (1989)
• Dotty (1990)
• More Than Melchisedech (1992); this book is made up of three novels:
  • Tales of Chicago
  • Tales of Midnight
  • Argo
• Sindbad: The Thirteenth Voyage (1989)

Other novels

• The Flame is Green (1971)
• Okla Hannali (1972)
• Half a Sky (1984)

Collections of stories

• Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970)
• Strange Doings (1972)
• Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to Add? (1974)
• Funnyfingers & Cabrito (1976)
• Apocalypses (1977)
• Golden Gate and Other Stories (1982)
• Through Elegant Eyes (1983)
• Ringing Changes (1984)
• The Early Lafferty (1988)
• The Back Door of History (1988)
• Strange Skies (1988); this book contains poems.
• The Early Lafferty II (1990)
• Episodes of the Argo (1990)
• Lafferty in Orbit (1991)
• Mischief Malicious (And Murder Most Strange) (1991)
• Iron Tears (1992)
• The Man Who Made Models – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 1 (2014)
• The Man With the Aura – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 2 (2015)
• The Man Underneath – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 3 (2015)
• The Man With The Speckled Eyes – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 4 (2017)
• The Man Who Walked Through Cracks – The Collected Short Fiction Volume 5 (2018)
• The Best of R. A. Lafferty (2019)

Non-fiction books

• The Fall of Rome (1971); later reprinted as Alaric: The Day the World Ended.
• It's Down the Slippery Cellar Stairs (1984)
• True Believers (1989)
• Cranky Old Man from Tulsa (1990)

Short stories

• "Through Other Eyes" (1960)
• "All the People" (1961)
• "The Weirdest World" (1961)
• "Aloys" (1961)
• "Rainbird" (1961)
• "Dream" (1962)
• "Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas" (1962)
• "What the Name of That Town?" (1964)
• "Slow Tuesday Night" (1965)
• "Among the Hairy Earthmen" (1966)
• "Land of the Great Horses" (1967)
• "Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne" (1967)
• "How They Gave It Back" (1968)
• "McGruder's Marvels" (1968)
• "Eurema's Dam" (1972)
• "The World as Will and Wallpaper" (1973)

Awards and Honors

R. A. Lafferty received many awards and nominations for his writing.

• He was nominated for the Hugo Award several times. His short story "Eurema's Dam" won the Best Short Story Hugo Award in 1973. He shared this award with Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth for their story "The Meeting."
• He was also nominated for the Nebula Award many times, but he never won one.
• His collection Lafferty in Orbit was nominated for a World Fantasy Award.
• In 1990, Lafferty received a special World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. This award honors writers for their entire career.
• His 1992 collection Iron Tears was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award.
• In 2002, he received the Cordwainer Smith Foundation's Rediscovery award.
• The Oklahoma Department of Libraries gave him the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.
• The book Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels by David Pringle included Lafferty's novel Fourth Mansions.

Lafferty's Writing Style Explained

Many people found Lafferty's writing style very unique. One French publisher once compared him to G. K. Chesterton, another Catholic author. Lafferty's response was, "You're on the right track, kid."

Neil Gaiman, a famous writer, wrote a short story called "Sunbird" in Lafferty's style. Gaiman said that Lafferty was "the best short story writer in the world" for a while in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He said Lafferty's stories were "unclassifiable and odd and inimitable." Gaiman also mentioned that you could tell it was a Lafferty story within just one sentence. Gaiman and Lafferty wrote letters to each other when Gaiman was a teenager. Gaiman remembered Lafferty's letters as being "filled with typical cock-eyed Lafferty humour and observations, wise and funny and sober all at once."

The Science Fiction Encyclopedia described Lafferty as a writer of "tall tales." They said his writing had a very "oral" (like spoken stories) feel. His strong Catholic faith was seen as influencing everything he wrote. He loved to explore old myths and create new ones. He enjoyed showing the world as being full of both good and bad secrets. Sometimes, his plots were not very neat, but his stories were always full of life and imagination.

Lafferty's Writings After His Death

In 2011, it was announced that the rights to 29 of Lafferty's novels and 225 short stories were for sale. The nonprofit foundation of Locus magazine bought these rights. Neil Gaiman, who was on the board of the foundation, helped with this. This means Lafferty's amazing stories can continue to be read and enjoyed by new generations.

See also

In Spanish: R. A. Lafferty para niños