By James Machell
The term “science fiction” evokes images of costumed Trekkies delivering the Vulcan salute and nerds with a permanent residence in their mother’s basement. Many of the most celebrated writers of the genre, however, lived dynamic, hedonistic lives, diving into scandals like they were swimming pools. Among the writers on this list, we have drug fiends and blasphemers, alcoholics, criminals, and womanizers, and even a couple of murderers.
10. J. G. Ballard
G. Ballard came to prominence in 1962 with the publication of The Drowned World, a disaster novel about competing for resources after solar storms melt the ice caps. He wrote two more catastrophe novels, and then his writing took an even darker turn. The Atrocity Exhibition, released in 1970, perplexed readers with its graphic depictions of sex and violence. Stories featured in the collection include Plan for the Assassination of Jacqueline Kennedy and The Great American Nude. He wrote the book after the sudden death of his wife in order to come to terms with the violence that ensued throughout the 1960s.1 “It wasn’t just the Kennedy assassination,” he wrote in its introduction. “I think I was trying to look for a kind of new logic that would explain all these events.”2
He continued searching for answers with Crash, a novel about car-crash fetishists, one of whom fantasizes about dying from a collision with Elizabeth Taylor. A famous editorial note read, “This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!” and a review for the New York Times stated, “Crash is, hands-down, the most repulsive book I’ve yet to come across.”3
9. Olaf Stapledon
There are few writers of science to achieve the influence of Olaf Stapledon. His most famous novel, Star Maker, was described by Arthur C. Clarke as “probably the most powerful work of imagination ever written.”4 It follows an unnamed narrator who has an out-of-body experience, which takes him through the universe faster than lightspeed. He encounters alien civilizations, sentient nebulae, and symbiotic lifeforms. His journey climaxes with meeting the titular Star Maker, a supreme being and Stapledon’s idea of God. It is the creator of many universes, some of which branch into each other and some with no spatial dimensions. Earth has no special significance within the multiverse, leading some critics to interpret the book as blasphemous.5
Star Maker was published in 1937, when science fiction was largely aimed at children and expected to uphold religious values. C. S. Lewis called the book “Sheer devil worship.”6
8. Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock wrote some of the most contentious works of speculative fiction. Stormbringer is about a drug addled emperor on a bloody quest, The Final Programme is a book of psychedelic madness, and Behold the Man follows a time traveler who, after discovering the real Christ is mentally disabled, takes his place on the cross. Moorcock’s goal was to shatter our expectations, but it was for his editorial work that he garnered the most controversy.7
Taking the helm of New Worlds magazine in 1964, he published graphic sex scenes within the first few months, which led to complaints but an increase in popularity. His vision for science fiction to become transgressive and modern was further realized by contributions from Harlan Ellison and J. G. Ballard, which were often extremely violent. He also welcomed experimental writing, spawning what would become known as the New Wave of Science Fiction. The genre quickly became less focused on technology, with authors using it to explore the future of gender and sexuality instead. It became less about predicting tomorrow, and more about reflecting contemporary politics and society, which was always bound to ruffle some feathers.8
7. Robert A. Heinlein
There are few writers more divisive than Robert A. Heinlein. He infused all three of his major novels with his libertarian ideology and referred to himself as a “philosophical anarchist.” Starship Troopers, published in 1959, was condemned for being right-wing, and satirized in the film adaptation by Paul Verhoeven. It focuses on the obligation of a future people to quell an alien hivemind comparable to communism. A “bugle-blowing, drum-beating glorification,” wrote one reviewer, who also claimed the book promoted imperialism.9
A Stranger in a Strange Land was equally controversial. It follows a Martian who comes to Earth and founds the Church of All Worlds, which encourages free love. Heinlein had an open marriage, and polyamory was central to his brand of libertarianism. This was further explored through The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, in which the male population of a lunar colony outnumbers the female and so polygamy becomes the norm out of necessity. Heinlein explored the ways this is actually an improvement on traditional relationships. He also coined the adage “There ain’t no such thing a free lunch,” which is often used to criticise the welfare system.10
6. Norman Spinrad
Norman Spinrad is one of the most radical voices in science fiction. Best known for Bug Jack Barren, serialised by Michael Moorcock in New Worlds, he received a great deal of backlash for explicit language and cynicism towards politicians. The magazine was partially funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain, which angered members of parliament, and when published as a book, Bug Jack Barren was banned by some retailers.
Spinrad describes himself as an “anarchist” and set fire to the rules of literature in his later novels. The Iron Dream is a metafictional alternative history, written from the perspective of an Adolf Hitler who survived WWII and became a science fiction author. The Void Captain’s Tale is an erotic, far-future horror, in which a pilot, who fuels her ship via orgasm, gains psychosexual control over its captain. Spinrad finally went too far in 2007 with Osama the Gun, a rejection letter reading, “No American publisher would touch it.”11
5. Samuel R. Delany
As the first prominent black and openly gay writer of science fiction, Samuel R. Delany was always bound to raise a few eyebrows. His early work includes Babel 17, which follows a translator of alien languages, and Nova, about a quest into the heart of a dying star. He also wrote Aye, and Gomorrah during this period, one of the most celebrated stories in the history of science fiction, detailing an unusual proposition to an agender prostitute.
Dhalgren, the bestselling of his novels, came out in 1975 to mixed reviews. Theodore Sturgeon may have called it “the very best ever to come out of the science fiction field,” but others were angered by its violent depictions of sexuality. One chapter describes a woman’s fixation with a man she claims to have been publicly raped by. The protagonist is also bisexual and enters a three-way sexual linkage with a woman and a fifteen-year-old boy. Pederasty is a theme that runs through many of Delany’s novels, including Hogg and Equinox, both more pornographic.12
4. William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs came to prominence as a leading member of the beat generation with Junkie, a semi-autobiographical novel about his experiences with heroin.13 He then turned his attention to science fiction, beginning with Naked Lunch, a book of vignettes about a drug addict and his adventures through a nightmarish location called Interzone. The Nova Trilogy followed, detailing a time-travelling secret agent and his battle with a mob of intergalactic criminals who plan on destroying Earth. He also wrote The Wild Boys, which is about a homosexual youth movement, set in an apocalyptic near future, and Queer, originally written as an extension of Junkie.14
Burroughs is as notorious for his personal life as his literature. He killed his second wife, Joan Vollmer, in 1951, while apparently performing a “William Tell” stunt, though he later told investigators it was a drunken misfiring.15 And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks, an early novel he wrote with Jack Kerouac, describes their involvement with the killing of David Kammerer, a crime they both helped to cover up.16
3. H. P. Lovecraft
As the originator of a subgenre called cosmic horror, H. P. Lovecraft is a monumental figure within science fiction. He was an atheist who believed that in the absence of God, the actions of humankind were inconsequential.17 Some of his characters are driven mad by their own insignificance, while others are harrowed by his distinct brand of monsters. Cthulhu dwells beneath the ocean, an enormous cross between dragon, octopus, and man. Nyarlathotep is a sadistic shapeshifter, who menaces his victims in their sleep, while Azathoth, the daemon sultan, bubbles and blasphemes at the centre of infinity.18
Lovecraft was also a white supremacist, and his racism is evident in many of his stories. The Horror at Red Hook describes immigrants bringing occult practices to New York, and The Street glorifies the supernatural genocide of Slavic settlers. Many of his other stories are also polluted with slurs, notably The Rats in the Walls. His wife stated that racially mixed crowds drove Lovecraft “livid with rage,” later adding that “he seemed to lose his mind.”19
2. Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison is probably best known for his short story, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, in which a supercomputer gains sentience and tortures the survivors of an apocalypse. He also wrote The City on the Edge of Forever, one of the most acclaimed Star Trek episodes, and edited Dangerous Visions, an anthology of transgressive stories.20
Ellison was notorious for his combative personality. He threatened James Cameron, alleging The Terminator ripped off one of his own scripts, and came close to a fight with Frank Sinatra due to an argument about their clothes. During one of his many contract disputes, he sent dozens of bricks to Ace Books followed by a dead animal. Ellison’s most notorious moment to be caught on camera was during the 2006 Hugo Awards ceremony when he sexually assaulted fellow science fiction writer, Connie Willis. Ellison is also said to have assaulted journalist Charles Platt at a Nebula Awards Banquet, and to have regularly boasted about the incident.21
1. Alice Sheldon
The most controversial author on this list was also the most secretive. Alice Sheldon used various pennames, including James Tiptree Jr. and Raccoona Sheldon, to hide her identity and traverse the male dominated world of science fiction. Her stories explore gender in frightening new ways, among them, The Screwfly Solution about an epidemic of organized femicide. The Women Men Don’t See describes women leaving their misogynistic home world with aliens, and The Girl Who Plugged In explores the harsh realities of the male gaze.22
Her contributions to literature led to the James Tiptree Jr. Award being named in her honor. This prize for writing about gender was subsequently renamed the Otherwise Award owing to Sheldon having killed her husband before committing suicide. A letter to Robert Silverberg reveals she had been suicidal for more than a decade prior but was reluctant to end her life without first killing her ailing husband. Sheldon’s diaries indicate the couple had made a suicide pact, but the incident has been characterized as a caregiver murder since her husband had lost his eyesight.23
- Ballard. (n.d.-b). Ballard, J G. SFE: Ballard, J G. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/ballard_j_g
↩︎ - The atrocity exhibition – J.G. Ballard (1970). Weighing a pig doesn’t fatten it. (2023, February 5). https://schicksalgemeinschaft.wordpress.com/2023/02/04/the-atrocity-exhibition-j-g-ballard-1970/
↩︎ - Weber, B. (2009, April 21). J. G. Ballard, novelist, is dead at 78 (published 2009). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/books/21ballard.html
↩︎ - Faded Page. (n.d.). Star Maker. https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20200108
↩︎ - Shenoy, G., FactorDaily, T., & Mishra, P. (2018, May 12). Our turbulent world against a background of stars: Why Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker is essential reading, even today. FactorDaily. https://archive.factordaily.com/olaf-stapledon-star-makers/
↩︎ - Herrick, J. A. (2024, October 15). C. S. Lewis, Science, and science fiction. Evolution News and Science Today. https://evolutionnews.org/2020/08/c-s-lewis-science-and-science-fiction/
↩︎ - Moorcock. (n.d.). Moorcock, Michael. SFE: Moorcock, Michael. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/moorcock_michael
↩︎ - New worlds. SFE: New Worlds. (n.d.). https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/new_worlds
↩︎ - Dedman, S. (n.d.). May the Armed Forces be With You. “I’m Not Working for the World” 1950 to 1961 (pp. 77–77).
↩︎ - Heinlein. (n.d.). Heinlein, Robert A. SFE: Heinlein, Robert A. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/heinlein_robert_a
↩︎ - Spinrad. (n.d.). Spinrad, norman. SFE: Spinrad, Norman. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/spinrad_norman
↩︎ - Delany. (n.d.). Delany, Samuel R. SFE: Delany, Samuel R. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/delany_samuel_r
↩︎ - Self, W. (2014, February 1). William Burroughs – the original junkie. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/01/william-burroughs-junky-will-self
↩︎ - Burroughs. (n.d.). Burroughs, William S. SFE: Burroughs, William S. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/burroughs_william_s
↩︎ - Kantor, L. (2020, August 8). Why did William Burroughs shoot his wife?. Beatdom. https://www.beatdom.com/burroughs-woodcut/
↩︎ - Marcellino, M. (2020, November 24). And the hippos were boiled in their tanks. The Nonconformist Magazine. https://nonconformist-mag.com/and-the-hippos-were-boiled-in-their-tanks/
↩︎ - Beech, K. (2015). H.P. Lovecraft: An Atheist and his Gods. Academia. https://www.academia.edu/11443386/H_P_Lovecraft_An_Atheist_and_his_Gods
↩︎ - Colagrossi, M. (2022, October 31). 7 of the scariest monsters from Lovecraftian Horror Books. Big Think. https://bigthink.com/high-culture/7-of-the-scariest-monsters-from-lovecraftian-horror-books/
↩︎ - Sanford, J. (2018, October 17). Disturbed by Lovecraft, whose racism and hate weren’t merely a product of his times. Jason Sanford. https://www.jasonsanford.com/blog/2016/10/disturbed-by-lovecraft
↩︎ - Ellison. (n.d.). Ellison, Harlan. SFE: Ellison, Harlan. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/ellison_harlan
↩︎ - Heer, J. (2021, May 11). Harlan Ellison’s death raises a #MeToo quandary. The New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/149489/harlan-ellisons-death-raises-metoo-quandary
↩︎ - Tiptree. (n.d.). Tiptree, james, JR. SFE: Tiptree, James, Jr. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/tiptree_james_jr
↩︎ - Allen, M. (2022). No more heroes? the death of Alice B Sheldon (aka James Tiptree Jr.) by Meg Allen – Asylum Magazine. Asylum. https://asylummagazine.org/2022/03/no-more-heroes-the-death-of-alice-b-sheldon-aka-james-tiptree-jr-by-meg-allen/
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