Gateway Essentials: Charles L. Harness

Charles L(eonard) Harness was born in Colorado City, Texas, in 1915. He earned degrees in chemistry and law from George Washington University and worked as a patent attorney from 1947 to 1981. Harness’s background as a lawyer influenced several of his works. His first story, ‘Time Trap’ was published in 1948 and drew on many themes that would recur in later stories: art, time travel and a hero undergoing a quasi-transcendental experience. Harness’ most famous single novel was his first, Flight into Yesterday, which was published first as a novella in the May 1949 issue of Startling Stories and was later republished as The Paradox Men in 1953. A great influence on many writers, Harness continued to publish until 2001 and was nominated for multiple Hugo and Nebula awards. In 2004 he was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.  He died in 2005, aged 89.

Want to know where to start exploring Charles L. Harness’s work? Of course you do!

We suggest beginning with The Rose, a collection containing his acclaimed novella of the same title, nominated for a retro-Hugo in 2004; galaxy-spanning far-future tale The Ring of Rintornel; or widescreen space opera The Paradox Men.

You can find these and more of Charles L. Harness’s work via his Author page on the Gateway website, and read about him in his entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.