„From 1979 to 2004, George Slusser held a joint position as Eaton SF Collection’s Curator and Professor of comparative literature. During his tenure the collection grew in printed titles and other materials, including the acquisition of the major fanzine collections. A prolific scholar in the field, Slusser taught the first courses in science fiction studies at University of California in Riverside and originated the Eaton Conference, which he chaired for more than 20 years. It was Slusser‘s dream for UCR to become a center of science fiction studies, with the collection he helped build as the nucleus. Establishing UCR as a Center for Science Fiction Studies is still part of the long-range vision at UCR.”: http://eaton.ucr.edu/about.html

„A Curator was hired for the Eaton Collection. The choice was Dr. George Slusser, who held a doctorate in comparative literature from Harvard University.

Dr. Slusser launched the Eaton Conference in 1979, bringing noted writers and scholars annually to the Riverside campus, and producing more than 20 volumes of conference proceedings. During George Slusser‘s 25-year curatorship, the Eaton collection grew to more than 100,000 volumes, ranging from the 1517 edition of Thomas More’s Utopia to the most recently published titles in all languages.

The collection also includes journals, comic books, and 300,000 fanzines, enriched by donations from collectors Terry Carr, Bruce Pelz, Fred Patten, and Rick Sneary. In recent years, films, videos, DVDs, film scripts, and illustrated narratives have been added, most of which have come as donations. The archival holdings comprise the papers of leading science fiction and fantasy authors, including Richard Adams, Gregory Benford, David Brin, F. M. Busby, Sheila Finch, Michael Cassutt, Robert L. Forward, Anne McCaffery, Lewis Shiner, Colin Wilson, and James White.

From its humble and controversial origins, the Eaton Collection has established itself as the largest publicly accessible collection in its field, visited by students, scholars, filmmakers, and enthusiasts from around the world. Dozens of dissertations, hundreds of monographs, and thousands of scholarly articles have been produced from its holdings. Curator Emeritus George Slusser, is considered a leading scholar in science fiction studies.”: http://www.celebratingresearch.org/libraries/riverside/eaton.shtml

George Slusser, American scholar, professor (PhD in literature from Harvard University, Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Riverside), writer, editor and translator, Curator Emeritus of The J. Lloyd Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature (biggest world SF collection, located in the Special Collections & Archives Department at the University of California, Riverside, USA),  Director of the Eaton Program for Science Fiction and Fantasy Studies, has passed away the 4th of November 2014.

Our condoleances to his wife, Danièle Chatelain, French/American scholar, professor and writer and to his family.

Professor Slusser is deeply regretted and missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with him.

During Professor Slusser‘s 25-year curatorship, the Eaton Collection at the University of California, Riverside, became the greatest archive of science fiction and fantasy in the world. It contains more than 100,000 volumes, ranging from the 1517 edition of Thomas More’s Utopia to the most recently published titles in all languages. The collection also includes journals, comic books, and 300,000 fanzines.

An encyclopedic spirit, a man of vast knowledge and culture, a talented and hard working scholar (The Pilgrim Award for services to science fiction’s criticism and scholarship in 1986), professor, editor, writer and translator, he contributed a lot to the legitimization of science fiction at the academic level in US and internationally. He was a mentor and a friend for Howard V. Hendrix, David Leiby, Bradford M. Lyau, Daryl F. Mallett and many more. Professor Slusser cooperated with some of the most important American academic scholars dedicated to the study, research and exegesis of science fiction as Eric Rabkin, Robert Scholes, Gary Westfahl, David Leiby, George Robert Guffey, Mark Rose, Collin Greenland, etc.

Professor Slusser was the organizer and the coordinator of 23 Eaton Conferences and has edited many anthologies of critical essays, including the papers delivered at the annual Eaton Conference on science fiction and fantasy and edited collaboratively with other academics involved in the Conference.

Professor Dr.George Slusser – Eaton science fiction Collection’s Curator Emeritus,

interview by Cristian Tamaș

 https://europasf.eu/professor-dr-george-slusser-eaton-science-fiction-collections-curator-emeritus/

I had the honor and the privilege to interview Professor Slusser and he kindly accepted that some of his essays to be translated into Romanian and published in the non-profit online magazine, Fantastica, of the Romanian Science Fiction & Fantasy Society.

The American SF writer David Brin : „The ‘Rebel’ Genre  – Here’s a fascinating interview with George Slusser by CristianTamas, about the underpinnings of science fiction as a literary form. This interview elucidates many ways that SF remains a “rebel” genre in the halls of academia. Indeed, even in those places where SF is studied and appraised by scholars, it seems that just a few authors – maybe a dozen – are deemed acceptable.”

The American SF writer Gregory Benford appreciated the interview with George Slusser and reposted it on his blog (http://www.gregorybenford.com/uncategorized/an-interview-with-professor-george-slusser-eaton-science-fiction-collections-curator-emeritus/) and on the site of the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies : http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/benford20140810

May he rest in peace !

Professor Slusser’s critical books are :

Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in His Own Land (1976; 1977)

The Farthest Shores of Ursula K. Le Guin (1976)

The Bradbury Chronicles (1977)

Harlan Ellison: Unrepentant Harlequin (1977)

The Delany Intersection (1977)

The Classic Years of Robert A. Heinlein (1977)

The Space Odysseys of Arthur C. Clarke (1978)

Gregory Benford (Modern Masters of Science Fiction series: University of Illinois Press), 2014

Works as Editor

Series

Eaton Conference Papers

Bridges to Science Fiction (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1980) with George Robert Guffey and Mark Rose

Bridges to Fantasy (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982) with Eric S Rabkin and Robert Scholes

Coordinates: Placing Science Fiction and Fantasy (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983) with Eric S Rabkin and Robert Scholes

Shadows of the Magic Lamp: Fantasy and Science Fiction in Film (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985) with Eric S Rabkin

Hard Science Fiction (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986) with Eric S Rabkin

Storm Warnings: Science Fiction Confronts the Future (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987) with Colin Greenland and Eric S Rabkin

Intersections: Fantasy and Science Fiction (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987) with Eric S Rabkin

Aliens: The Anthropology of Science Fiction (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987) with Eric S Rabkin

Mindscapes: The Geographies of Imagined Worlds (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989) with Eric S Rabkin

Styles of Creation: Aesthetic Technique and the Creation of Fictional Worlds (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1993) with Eric S Rabkin

Fiction 2000: Cyberpunk and the Future of Narrative (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1992) with Tom Shippey

Fights of Fancy: Armed Conflict in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1993) with Eric S Rabkin

Immortal Engines: Life Extension and Immortality in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1996) with Eric S Rabkin and Gary Westfahl

Science Fiction and Market Realities (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1996) with Eric S Rabkin and Gary Westfahl

Foods of the Gods: Eating and the Eaten in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1996) with Eric S Rabkin and Gary Westfahl

Nursery Realms: Children in the Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1999) with Gary Westfahl

Science Fiction, Canonization, Marginalization, and the Academy (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002) with Gary Westfahl

Unearthly Visions: Approaches to Science Fiction and Fantasy Art (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002) with Kathleen Church Plummer and Gary Westfahl

No Cure for the Future: Disease and Medicine in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002) with Gary Westfahl

Worlds Enough and Time: Explorations of Time in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002) with David Leiby and Gary Westfahl

Science Fiction and the Two Cultures: Essays on Bridging the Gap between the Sciences and the Humanities (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishers, 2009) with Gary Westfahl

Visions of Mars: Essays on the Red Planet in Fiction and Science (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2011) with Howard V. Hendrix and Eric S. Rabkin

individual titles

Zephyr and Boreas: Winds of Change in the Fiction of Ursula K Le Guin: A Festschrift in Memory of Pilgrim Award Winner, Marjorie Hope Nicolson (San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press, 1997) with Robert Reginald

The Fantastic Other: An Interface of Perspectives (Amsterdam, Holland: Rodopi, 1998) with Brett Cooke and Jaume Marti-Olivella

Transformations of Utopia: Changing Views of the Perfect Society (New York: AMS Press, 1999) with Paul K. Alkon and Roger Gaillard

H. G. Wells’s Perennial Time Machine (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2001) with Patrick Parrinder and Daniè Chatelain

Genre at the Crossroads: The Challenge of Fantasy (Pennsylvania: Xenos Books, 2003) with Jean-Pierre Barricelli (1924-1997)

Works as Translator:

Honoré de Balzac – The Centenarian; or The Two Behringelds (Le Centenaire; ou les Deux Behringeld, 1822), in coll. with Danièle Chatelaîn, New York: Arno Press, 1976)

J-H Rosny Aîné – The Xipehuz and The Death of the Earth (Les Xipéhuz ; in L’Immolation [“The Sacrifice”, 1887; 1888] and La mort de la Terre (May-July 1910 Annales littéraires et politiques); New York: Arno Press, 1978)

J-H Rosny Aîné – Three Science Fiction Novellas: From Prehistory to the End of Mankind (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2012), in coll, with Danièle Chatelaîn