Jack Vance (1916-2013) published his first story, "The World-Thinker," in 1945 and went on to write over sixty books. Best known as a science fiction and fantasy writer, Vance has won several awards in those genres, including the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement and a number of Hugo Awards. He also tried his hand at writing murder mysteries, a small dozen of which were published under his full name of John Holbrook Vance. In 1997, he was named a SFWA Grand Master. A 2009 profile in the New York Times Magazine described Vance as "one of American literature's most distinctive and undervalued voices."
