John Holbrook Vance (b. 1916) studied mining engineering, physics and journalism at the University of California. During World War II, Vance served in the Merchant Navy, where he wrote his first story, ΓÇ£The World ThinkerΓÇ¥ (subsequently published in 1945). In the decade following the war, he contributed short stories and novels to the scifi pulp magazines. Among these were the Magnus Randolph series of adventures about an interstellar troubleshooter.
With the publication of his first book, The Dying Earth, in 1950, Vance explored the theme of the far future, a time when science has been displaced by magic. In Big Planet (1952), he contributed a more believable ,
