|  Mega-bestselling
author Dean Koontz declines to call himself a libertarian. But Publishers
Weekly chastised him for allowing his "libertarian views"
to seep into his novels; Koontz complains that all politicians "get
corrupted by power;" and he admits to being at least "semi-libertarian"
on most issues.
But let's take Koontz at his word; he's just a semi-libertarian
-- albeit one who trumpets his distrust of government, power, and politicians
at almost every opportunity. Some examples:
• In an online chat on CNN.com (September 10,
2001), Koontz said, "Any time I'm looking for a good psychopath
[as a character for a novel], I first check out the current crop of
Congressmen, and see what they are up to."
• In The Dean Koontz Companion (Headline
Book Publishing, 1994), Koontz said, "It had become apparent to
me that the worst enemy of the working man and woman is the state, and
that the average person is safest in a country that struggles to limit
the size of the state."
• In an interview with the Mystery Guild (2000),
Koontz said, "We just left a century that gave us the worst mass
murderers in history: Hitler, Stalin, Mao. History shows us, over and
over again, that large groups of people given too much power over other
people lose their humanity."
Koontz's libertarian -- er, semi-libertarian -- beliefs aren't
limited to interviews; they have increasingly infused the dialogue and
perspectives of characters in his novels. Critics and fans have noticed.
In 1994, Publisher's Weekly wrote: "In recent years, Koontz's
libertarian views have seeped ever more deeply into his thrillers..."
And his 1995 novel, Dark Rivers of the Heart -- which exposed
the abuse of asset forfeiture laws -- was a finalist for the Prometheus
Award, given by the Libertarian Futurist Society for the best libertarian
sci-fi novel of the year.
Koontz traces his pro-liberty views to the late 1960s, when he worked
for the Appalachian Poverty Program. The federally funded initiative,
designed to help poor children, sounded "very noble and wonderful,"
Koontz told Reason magazine (November 1996). In reality, it
was a dumping ground for violent children, he said, and most of the
funding ended up "disappearing somewhere." In The Dean
Koontz Companion, Koontz said he woke up one day and "realized
that most of these programs are not meant to help anyone, merely to
control people and make them dependent. I was forced to reconsider
everything I'd once believed. I developed a profound distrust of government
regardless of the philosophy of the people in power. I remained a liberal
on civil-rights issues, became a conservative on defense, and a semi-libertarian
on all other matters."
Koontz said he eschews politics. "I try not to spend too much time
on partisan politics," he told Reason. "Life's too
short for that. I don't really believe that there have been many human
problems solved by politics." Instead, Koontz -- like the characters
in his novels -- puts his faith in the redemptive power of family, friendship,
faith, and freedom. "I believe in free will and individual choice
and that we make our own lives as we go along," he told Reason.
Koontz has made his own life into a remarkable success. With 225 million
copies of his books sold, he is one of the most popular authors in the
world. (In 2001, he was ranked #61 on Forbes magazine's list
of the 100 biggest celebrities, just behind quarterback Peyton Manning
and ahead of actress Sandra Bullock.)
To deal with the abuse he suffered at the hands of an alcoholic father,
Koontz escaped into fiction at an early age. He began scribbling stories
for relatives when he was eight, and won an Atlantic Monthly
fiction competition a senior in college. After a stint as a teacher,
he turned to writing full-time in 1969, and began selling science fiction
novels to paperback publishers.
As his novels became more ambitious in scope, style, and theme, Koontz
began to regularly hit the bestseller list, first in paperback (Whispers,
1980) and then hardback (Strangers, 1986). While frequently
described as a "horror" writer, by the early 1980s most of
Koontz's books transcended the genre -- and incorporated aspects of
science fiction, horror, thriller, and detective novels. (For example,
1990's The Bad Place features detectives, telepathy, time travel,
psychic powers, and an incestuous hermaphrodite.)
Koontz's genre-hopping books were an enormous hit with readers. Ten
of his novels reached #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller
list, including From the Corner of His Eye (2000), Sole
Survivor (1997), Intensity (1996), Dragon Tears
(1993), and Lightning (1988). Several of his books, including
Demon Seed, Watchers, and Phantoms, were made into
movies, while Mr. Murder, Intensity, and Sole Survivor
were adapted as TV miniseries. Koontz also found success with children's
books, including Oddkins (1988), Santa's Twin (1996),
and The Paper Doorway (2001).
Koontz's most recent books include Life Expectancy (2004),
Life is Good: Lessons in Joyful Living, "co-written"
with his dog, Trixie (2004), Frankenstein: Prodigal Son (2005),
Frankenstein: City of Night (2005), and Velocity (2005).
--
Bill Winter
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