Delany, Samuel R.

in full Samuel Ray Delany, Jr.

(born April 1, 1942, New York, N.Y., U.S.) African-American science-fiction novelist and critic whose highly imaginative works address racial and social issues, heroic quests, and the nature of language.

Delany attended City College of New York (now City University of New York) in the early 1960s. His first novel, The Jewels of Aptor, was published in 1962. Babel-17 (1966), which established his reputation, has an artist as the protagonist and explores the nature of language and its ability to give structure to experience. Delany won the science-fiction Nebula Award for the book, as he did for The Einstein Intersection (1967), which features another artist-outsider and addresses issues of cultural development and sexual identity, a theme more fully developed in the author's later works.

Dhalgren (1975), considered Delany's most controversial novel, is the story of a young bisexual man searching for identity in a large, decaying city. The main character of Triton (1976) undergoes a sex-change operation, and in this novel the author examines bias against women and homosexuals.

Delany's Neveryon series (Tales of Nevèrÿon [1979]; Neveryóna; or, The Tale of Signs and Cities [1983]; Flight from Nevèrÿon [1985]; and The Bridge of Lost Desire [1987]) is set in a magical past at the beginning of civilization. These tales concern power and its abuse, while taking up contemporary themes (including such topics as AIDS). His complex Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand (1984) is regarded as a stylistic breakthrough for the author. He also wrote the novella “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones” (1969) and the criticism The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction (1977).