|  F.
Paul Wilson is a libertarian jack-of-all-trades when it comes to writing.
A physician by trade, he has penned 25 science fiction, horror, thriller,
and medical novels, bringing libertarian themes -- sometimes explicit,
sometimes subtle -- to millions of readers.
Along the way, Wilson broke new ground. Award-winning science fiction
writer and fellow libertarian L. Neil Smith dubbed him "the first
modern, openly libertarian science fiction writer."
Born in New Jersey, Wilson read H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, and Robert
Heinlein as a boy. He sold his first short story while a medical student,
and in 1976, sold his first science fiction novel, Healer.
That novel (as well as Wheels Within Wheels and An Enemy
of the State) takes place in the LaNague Federation future history,
in which a "reluctant revolutionary" fights a repressive government.
In the preface for the new 2000 edition of An Enemy of the State,
Wilson reminisced about his path to libertarianism. In the late 1960s,
Wilson said he was intrigued by "the anarchocapitalist writings
of Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard and others." However, he
felt like a "political and philosophical orphan," as he marched
in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, surrounded by self-proclaimed leftists.
"It was lonely out there," he said. "Today there's a
libertarian movement and a Libertarian Party, but back in the late sixties
... it didn't have a name."
Early on, Wilson decided to make explicitly libertarian points in his
fiction. "I wanted my science fiction to incorporate this odd but
fundamentally consistent view of the world," he said. "It
felt right."
It felt right to readers, too. Wilson's 1978 novel, Wheels Within
Wheels, won the first-ever Prometheus Award from the Libertarian
Futurist Society (LFS) as the finest pro-freedom science fiction novel
of the year. In 1990, Healer won the LFS's Hall of Fame Award;
An Enemy of the State won the same award the following year.
In an interview in Laissez-Faire City Times (January 27, 2000)
Wilson said he doesn't let ideology get in the way of story-telling.
"I don't write to promote libertarian ideas; I write to tell a
story," he said. "The story comes first." But even in
his novels without an explicitly libertarian message, Wilson said there
is a focus on "the eternal tension between society and the individual."
Other Wilson novels include The Touch (1986), Dydeetown
World (1989), Reprisal (1991), Nightworld (1992),
Deep as the Marrow (1996), Conspiracies (1999), Hosts
(2000), and Sims (2003). A continuing character, Repairman
Jack, appears in a number of his novels.
More than 6 million copies of Wilson's books are in print, and his novels
have been translated into 24 foreign languages. His first children's
book, The Christmas Thingy, was published in 2000. In addition,
his novels The Keep and The Tomb were made into movies.
He continues to work as a doctor two days a week.
-- Bill
Winter
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Quotable
"I
struck out in a different direction, away from the Left-Right axis,
and let me tell you, it was lonely out there. I turned off the Lefties
with my espousal of a free-market economy and Young Republican types
all but held up crosses when I suggested legalizing drugs and prostitution.
What a concept. It's now called libertarianism. Today there's a libertarian
movement and a Libertarian Party, but back in the late sixties ... it
didn't have a name. I was alone in that crowd, a political and philosophical
orphan." -- F. Paul Wilson in the Preface to the 2000 edition of
An Enemy of the State
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