Spider Robinson

Spider Robinson (born November 24, 1948) is an American-born Canadian science fiction author.

He attended a Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary; this was followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in the 1960s, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English.

While at Stony Brook, Spider entertained at campus coffeehouses and gatherings, strumming his guitar and singing in harmony with his female partner.

It was at this time that his friends, at his request, stopped calling him his childhood nickname of "Robbie" (a simple contraction of his last name, Robinson) and gave him the nickname "Spider", which he eventually adopted as his official first name.

Robinson adopted the name partially out of admiration for blues musician "Spider" John Koerner.

He worked as a book reviewer for Galaxy magazine during the mid-to-late 1970s.

In 1971, just out of college, Robinson took a night job guarding sewers in New York City, and wanting a career change, began writing science fiction.

He made his first short-story sale in 1972 to Analog Science Fiction magazine.

The story, "The Guy with the Eyes" (Analog, February 1973), was set in a bar called Callahan's Place; Robinson would, off-and-on, continue to write stories about the denizens of Callahan's into the 21st century.

The stories have been collected into a number of published books.

In 1973, Robinson moved to Nova Scotia and began writing full-time.

He made several short-story sales to Analog, Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, and others, earning the John Campbell Award for best new writer in 1974.

In 1975, he married Jeanne Robinson, a choreographer, dancer, and Sōtō Zen monk, with whom he later co-wrote the Stardance Trilogy.

Robinson's first published novel, Telempath (1976), was an expansion of his Hugo Award–winning novella By Any Other Name.

Over the following three decades, Robinson on average released a book a year, including short story anthologies.

He has won a number of awards for his hard science fiction and humorous stories, including the Hugo Award 1977 and 1983, and another Hugo with his co-author and wife Jeanne Robinson in 1978.

Robinson was born in the Bronx, New York City; his father was a salesman.

He was an avid reader of science fiction, and it was his early childhood exposure to the juvenile novels of Robert A. Heinlein that later influenced him to become a writer.

In 1977, Robinson released Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, a collection of short stories in his long-running Callahan's series.

These stories, and later novels, make frequent reference to the works of mystery writer John D. MacDonald; his character Lady Sally McGee reflects Travis McGee, the central character in MacDonald's mystery novels.

The lead character in Lady Slings the Booze frequently refers to Travis McGee as a role model.

In Callahan's Key the patrons make a visit to the marina near Fort Lauderdale where the Busted Flush was usually moored in the McGee series.

Similarly important to Robinson is writer Donald E. Westlake and Westlake's most famous character, John Dortmunder.

In 1978–79, he contributed book reviews to Jim Baen's original anthology series Destinies.

For several years after he reviewed books for Analog, including reviews of Heinlein's later work.

Robinson had previously written of his admiration for Heinlein in his 1980 essay "Rah, Rah, R.A.H.!", in the 1998 "Mentors", and in his book The Free Lunch.

In an afterword to Variable Star, he recounts the story of how reading Rocket Ship Galileo, and soon after, Heinlein's other Heinlein juvenile novels, helped set the direction for his life, and how he came to write the novel.

The novel reflects the very different writing styles of both Heinlein and Robinson; reviews of the books were mixed, praising Robinson's handling of a difficult task and the lively story, but criticizing the unlikely plot twists and trite romantic scenes.

Robinson has resided in Canada for nearly 40 years, primarily in the provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia.

He and his wife Jeanne had a daughter, Terri Luanna da Silva, who once worked for Martha Stewart, and one granddaughter.

In 1992, Robinson was master-of-ceremonies for the Hugo Awards at MagiCon, the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Orlando, Florida.

From 1996 to 2005, he served as a columnist in the op-ed section (and briefly in the technology section) of The Globe and Mail.

After living in Vancouver for a decade, he moved to Bowen Island in about 1999.

He became a Canadian citizen in 2002, retaining his American citizenship.

In 2004, Robinson began working on a seven-page 1955 novel outline by the late Robert A. Heinlein to expand it into a novel.

The book, titled Variable Star, was released on September 19, 2006.

Due to the health issues faced by both himself and his family, he has not published a novel since 2008.

Jeanne underwent treatment for biliary cancer, and died May 30, 2010.

Robinson suffered a heart attack on August 31, 2013, but recovered.

Their daughter Terri died of breast cancer on December 5, 2014.