Gibson, William

Gibson, William
▪ 2009

      American playwright

born Nov. 13, 1914, Bronx, N.Y.

died Nov. 25, 2008, Stockbridge, Mass.
won instant acclaim for his play The Miracle Worker (1959), which was based on the life of Helen Keller, a deaf and blind child whose determined teacher, Annie Sullivan, taught her to communicate by using sign language. Though Gibson occasionally penned narrative fiction, he focused much of his 70-year career on writing plays. After creating such modest theatrical hits as A Cry of Players (1948) and Two for the Seesaw (1958), Gibson scored with The Miracle Worker. The original playscript, created as a teleplay, was significantly reworked for the stage. The Miracle Worker opened on Broadway on Oct. 19, 1959. It ran 719 performances and received four Tony Awards, including one for best play. Gibson's screenplay for the 1962 film adaptation received an Oscar nomination. Though his later works never received the same level of praise, plays such as Golda (1977) and Golda's Balcony (2003) were well received.

* * *

▪ American author
in full  William Ford Gibson 
born March 17, 1948, Conway, South Carolina, U.S.

      American-Canadian writer of science fiction who was the leader of the genre's “cyberpunk” (cyberpunk) movement.

      Gibson grew up in southwestern Virginia. After dropping out of high school in 1967, he traveled to Canada and eventually settled there, earning a B.A. (1977) from the University of British Columbia. Many of Gibson's early stories, including Johnny Mnemonic (1981; filmed 1995) and Burning Chrome (1982), were published in Omni magazine. With the publication of his first novel, Neuromancer (1984), Gibson emerged as a leading exponent of cyberpunk, a new school of science-fiction writing. Cyberpunk combines a cynical, tough “punk” sensibility with futuristic cybernetic (cybernetics) (i.e., having to do with communication and control theory) technology. Gibson's creation of “cyberspace,” a computer-simulated reality that shows the nature of information, foreshadowed virtual reality technology and is considered the author's major contribution to the genre.

      Neuromancer, which won three major science-fiction awards (Nebula, Hugo, and Philip K. Dick), established Gibson's reputation. Its protagonist is a 22nd-century data thief who fights against the domination of a corporate-controlled society by breaking through the global computer network's cyberspace matrix. Count Zero (1986) was set in the same world as Neuromancer but seven years later. The characters of Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) can “die” into computers, where they may support or sabotage outer reality. After collaborating with writer Bruce Sterling (Sterling, Bruce) on The Difference Engine (1990), a story set in Victorian England, Gibson returned to the subject of cyberspace in Virtual Light (1993). His Idoru (1996), set in 21st-century Tokyo, focuses on the media and virtual celebrities of the future. All Tomorrow's Parties (1999) concerns a clairvoyant cyberpunk who labours to keep a villain from dominating the world. Pattern Recognition (2003) follows a marketing consultant who is hired to track down the origins of a mysterious Internet video. In Spook Country (2007), characters navigate a world filled with spies, ghosts, and other nefarious unseen agents.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Gibson, William Hamilton — ▪ American illustrator and author born October 5, 1850, Sandy Hook, Connecticut, U.S. died July 16, 1896, Washington, Connecticut       American illustrator, author, and naturalist whose well received images reached a large audience through the… …   Universalium

  • Gibson, William (Ford) — born March 17, 1948, Conway, S.C., U.S. U.S. born Canadian science fiction writer. He attended the University of British Columbia. With his first novel, Neuromancer (1984), he emerged as a leading exponent of cyberpunk, a school of science… …   Universalium

  • Gibson, William (Ford) — (n. 17 mar. 1948, Conway, S.C., EE.UU.). Escritor estadounidense de ciencia ficción nacido en Canadá. Asistió a la University of British Columbia. Con su primera novela, Neuromante (1984), emergió como uno de los principales exponentes del… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • William Ford Gibson — William Gibson während der Lesereise zu Spook Country 2007 William Ford Gibson (* 17. März 1948 in Conway, South Carolina) ist ein US amerikanischer Science Fiction Autor. Bekannt wurde er mit seinem 1984 erschienenen Roman Neuromancer …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • William Gibson — Nacimiento 17 de marzo de 1948 (63 años) Conway, Horry County, Carolina del Sur, Estados Unidos de América …   Wikipedia Español

  • William Gibson (Australian politician) — William Gerrand Gibson (19 May 1869 – 22 May 1955) was an Australian politician.Gibson was born in Gisborne, Victoria and helped his father on his farm before operating general stores at Romsey and Lancefield. In November 1896, he married Mary… …   Wikipedia

  • William Willard Gibson, Jr. — William Willard (Bill) Gibson, Jr. (born in Amarillo, Texas, March 5 1932) received a B.A. in government (Plan II) in 1954 and an LL.B with honors in 1956 from the University of Texas at Austin. During law school he was a member of the Order of… …   Wikipedia

  • William Anders — Land (Behörde): USA (NASA) Datum der Auswahl: 17. Oktober 1963 (3. NASA Gruppe) Anzahl der Raumflüge: 1 Start erster Raumflug …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • William Gibson — Infobox Writer name = William Gibson imagesize = 300px caption = William Gibson in August 2007 birthdate = birth date and age|mf=yes|1948|3|17 birthplace = Conway, South Carolina occupation = Novelist citizenship = United States, Canada period =… …   Wikipedia

  • William Gibson — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Gibson (homonymie).  Ne pas confondre avec le dramaturge américain William Gibson (1914 2008)  …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”