Steven H. Silver writes to let us know that “the Virginia State Legislature has passed a resolution declaring 27 June Will F. Jenkins Day [the real name of author Murray Leinster].” He also notes that in the resolution, printed below, “the paragraph dealing with the Sidewise Award is in error. Although the Award is usually presented at the World Science Fiction Convention, it is not an award created by, presented by, or condoned by WSFS.” For more information on the Sidewise Award, see this page.
Jenkins’s family is planning a ceremony for the date, and we’ll have more information on that when we know it. The photo of Jenkins is from Silver’s official Murray Leinster web site.
[Edited 25 February 2009 to note that Silver is soliciting reminiscences about Murray Leinster/Will F. Jenkins, or pieces talking about how he/his writing has influenced you for a memory book which will be presented to his family to coincide with Will F. Jenkins Day. Written pieces or photos of Jenkins/Leinster for inclusion should be sent to Silver at murrayleinsterday at gmail dot com no later than 31 May.]
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 755: AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE (Proposed by the Senate Committee on Rules on February 20, 2009) (Patron Prior to Substitute—Delegate Morgan) Designating June 27, 2009, as Will F. Jenkins Day in Virginia.
WHEREAS, Will F. Jenkins, one of the most prolific fiction writers of the 20th century, who also received notoriety in the science fiction field under the pen name, Murray Leinster, was born in Norfolk on June 16, 1896, lived and worked in Gloucester County most of his life, and died on June 8, 1975; and
WHEREAS, Will F. Jenkins served his country both in World War I with the Committee on Public Information and as an instructor in a noncommissioned officer training battalion and in World War II with the Office of War Information; and
WHEREAS, during his freelance writing career, which began in 1913 and ended in 1974, Will F. Jenkins published 74 novels and collections, as well as 1,800 stories in magazines; and
WHEREAS, in 1937, Will F. Jenkins won the Liberty Award for his story “A Very Nice Family”; and
WHEREAS, as Murray Leinster, he was one of the founders of American science fiction with his story “The Runaway Skyscraper”, which was published on February 22, 1919, in Argosy magazine; and he was one of the few pioneers of the genre who continued to publish regularly when the nature of science fiction changed after World War II; and
WHEREAS, “First Contact”, written by Murray Leinster in 1945, is one of the most anthologized stories in the history of science fiction, and “A Logic Named Joe”, written in 1946 by Will F. Jenkins, was the first science fiction story to envision a computer network similar to the Internet; and
WHEREAS, Murray Leinster won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for “Exploration Team” in 1956; was the guest of honor at the 21st Worldcon in 1963; and was awarded a Retro Hugo Award posthumously in 1996 for Best Novelette for “First Contact”, which was the first science fiction story to present the dramatic scenario of the first meeting between earthlings and aliens; and
WHEREAS, in 1949, Will F. Jenkins, writing under the pen name Murray Leinster, was dubbed the “Dean of Science Fiction” by Time magazine; and
WHEREAS, Will F. Jenkins is credited with the invention of parallel universe stories, and in 1995, the award known as the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, established by the World’s Science Fiction Convention [sic], was named in honor of Murray Leinster’s story, “Sidewise in Time”, in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with their analogs from other timelines; and
WHEREAS, the stories of Will F. Jenkins and Murray Leinster have been made into movies, television and radio shows, and recorded for tapes and compact discs, and he was voted 10th in a list of the top 18 all-time science fiction authors by an Analog Science Fiction and Fact readers’ survey in 1966; and
WHEREAS, Will F. Jenkins was an active inventor and most notably on December 20, 1955, patented the “Front Projection” filming method, and he sold the patent to Sherman Fairchild of Fairchild Cameras, who widely produced the method, and “Front Projection” was first used in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly designate June 27, 2009, as Will F. Jenkins Day in Virginia in recognition of the author’s creative genius and his numerous literary achievements; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates post the designation of this day on the General Assembly’s website.