Lectureship readers remember Jack Williamson

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The 40th annual Jack Williamson Lectureship is taking place this week at Eastern New Mexico University and will see writers and colleagues from Portales and around the country paying tribute to the famous science fiction author.

At a reading of Williamson’s works on Thursday evening, various authors paid him tribute, recalling memories of him.

Joan Saberhagen recalled the impact that Williamson made in her life, as well as in that of her husband, the late science fiction author Fred Saberhagen.

“Watching Jack, I felt that writing was also going to be something that was going to help my husband’s life, and that he would have a full life doing this, and that it wasn’t something where you retire at 65, and say, ‘Oh thank god, I walked away from my job,’” she said. “He was a gracious host to all of his friends. For Fred, I really do think they both saw things that they thought humanity should be careful about, and this kind of formed a bond in that it was as if they had seen something that they were trying to warn people about.”

According to Victor Milan, the lectureship’s guest of honor, reading Williamson’s works at an early age made an impression that inspired him as an author.

“I was reading some of his stories when I was in middle school and high school. I was reading his ‘Legion of Space’ stories, and those made an impression on me. It stuck with me, because those are still the things that I enjoy reading today, and the sorts of things that I enjoy writing,” he said.

“I think Jack blazed the way for science fiction writers through the course of his incredible career. I think we all owe a debt for probably establishing a lot of the nature of the field, and kind of establishing our place in the world.”

Gene Bundy, special collections librarian at ENMU’s Golden Library, not only worked with Williamson at the university but also had the author as an English professor.

“I had been reading science fiction for a while, and then to take a class with him, that was pretty cool. I left, and when I came back, I got to know him better, and then when I got the job, Jack had retired by then, but he taught a class every spring, and so he had his office in special collections,” Bundy said. “Every Thursday morning, he had office hours, so he would come up and sit for a couple of hours, so I would go up and visit with him. I got to travel with him — an hour and a half in the car with Jack — talking about what he did during the depression, riding the rails, growing up on the ranch — fascinating stories.”