Jack Finney

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Template:Short description Template:Infobox writer Walter Braden "Jack" Finney (born John Finney; October 2, 1911 – November 14, 1995) was an American writer. His best-known works are science fiction and thrillers, including The Body Snatchers and Time and Again. A theme that persisted throughout his career was his fascination with ordinary people encountering extraordinary circumstances. Many of his works were adapted into films or television productions.

Early life and education

John "Jack" Finney was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After his father died when Finney was three years old, he was renamed Walter Braden Finney in honor of his father, but continued to be known as "Jack".

He attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, graduating in 1934.

Early career

In the 1940s, Finney moved to New York City, where he worked as an advertising copywriter. He worked on the Office of War Information's "Loose lips sink ships" campaign of World War II,Template:Cn driving home the point that careless remarks by otherwise patriotic citizens can aid enemy agents, resulting in the death of U.S. servicemen.

While holding a full-time job and raising a young family, he wrote fiction in the evenings, eventually selling short stories to magazines. His breakout success came in 1955 with The Body Snatchers, followed by a steady career as a novelist and short-story writer.<ref name=NYTMag1995>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Writing career

Finney's first article, "Someone Who Knows Told Me...", published in the December 1943 issue of Cosmopolitan, reflects the message of the Office of War Information "Loose lips sink ships]]" campaign of World War II. , reflects the message of the Office of War Information's (OWI).

His story "The Widow's Walk" won a contest sponsored by Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1946.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His first novel, 5 Against the House, was published in 1954. It was made into a movie the following year.

Finney's story "Such Interesting Neighbors" (Collier's, 6 January 1951) was the basis for the second episode of Science Fiction Theatre, entitled "Time Is Just a Place". It was first broadcast on 16 April 1955. It co-starred Don DeFore and Warren Stevens; it was then published in 1957, in the collection The Third Level by Rhinehart and Company; later, the story appeared as an episode of the Steven Spielberg-created anthology series Amazing Stories, starring Adam Ant and Marcia Strassman. Spielberg's version was first broadcast on 20 March 1987.

Finney's novel The Body Snatchers (1955) was the basis for the 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers and multiple remakes.

Another novel, Assault on a Queen (1959), became the film Assault on a Queen with Frank Sinatra as the leader of a gang that pulls a daring robbery of the RMS Queen Mary.

Finney's 1959 short story, "The Love Letter," which appeared in The Saturday Evening Post was adapted in 1998 into the television movie The Love Letter, starring Campbell Scott and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Finney's greatest success came with his science fiction novel Time and Again (1970). It involves time travel to the past, a theme he had experimented with previously in short stories. Its protagonist, Simon Morley, is working in advertising in New York City when he is recruited for a secret government project to achieve time travel. Morley travels to the New York City of 1882. The novel is notable for Finney's vivid and detailed picture of life in the city at that time<ref name=NYTMag1995 /> and for the art and photographs supposedly made by Morley during his experiences, which are reproduced in the pages of the novel.<ref name=FinneyFootnote>Template:Cite book</ref> Morley sees many actual historical sites, some now gone (e.g., the post office that, until 1939, stood in what is now the southern tip of City Hall Park) and some still existing (e.g., St. Patrick's Cathedral, then the tallest building in its Fifth Avenue neighborhood).

In 1995, twenty-five years after Time and Again, Finney published a sequel called From Time to Time featuring the further adventures of Morley, this time centering on Manhattan in 1912. Finney died at the age of 84, not long after publishing the book.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life and death

Finney married Marguerite Guest, and they had two children, Kenneth and Marguerite. He moved with his family to California in the early 1950s, eventually setting in Mill Valley.

Finney was a shy and private man who rarely granted interviews. For decades he declined publicity and avoided public literary life, speaking to journalists only late in his career. A 1995 New York Times Magazine article noted his quiet routines and strong attachment to family life, including the support he received from his wife and children. It also highlighted his eccentric streak, reflected in his lifelong fascination with the past, his habit of collecting old magazines and photographs, and the deep personal pleasure he took in researching earlier eras.<ref name=NYTMag1995 />

Finney died of pneumonia and emphysema in Greenbrae, California, at the age of 84.

Awards

In 1987, Finney was given the World Fantasy Award—Life Achievement at the World Fantasy Convention, held in Nashville, Tennessee.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Third Level, Knox College's science fiction and fantasy publication, is named for alumnus Finney's short story "The Third Level", published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in October 1952.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Works

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Short stories

  • "Someone Who Knows Told Me …", Cosmopolitan (Non-Fiction) (December 1943)
  • "The Widow's Walk", Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (July 1947)
  • "Manhattan Idyl", Collier's (April 1947)
  • "I'm Mad at You", Collier's (December 1947)
  • "Breakfast in Bed", Collier's (May 1948)
  • "It Wouldn't Be Fair", Collier's (August 1948) - Also published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
  • "You Haven't Changed a Bit", Colliers (April 1949)
  • "The Little Courtesies", Collier's (June 1949)
  • "A Dash of Spring", Cosmopolitan (June 1949)
  • "Week-end Genius", Colliers (May 1950)
  • "I Like It This Way", Collier's (June 1950)
  • "My Cigarette Loves Your Cigarette", Collier's (September 1950)
  • "Such Interesting Neighbors", Collier's (January 1951)
  • "One Man Show", Collier's (June 1951)
  • "I'm Scared", Collier's (September 1951)
  • "It Wouldn't be Fair", Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (November 1951)
  • "Obituary" (co-written with C.J. Durban), Collier's (February 1952)
  • "The Third Level", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (October 1952)
  • "Quit Zoomin' Those Hands Through the Air", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (December 1952)
  • "Of Missing Persons" (1955)
  • "Man of Confidence", Good Housekeeping (September 1955)
  • "Second Chance", Good Housekeeping (April 1956)
  • "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket", Good Housekeeping (June 1956)
  • "The Love Letter", Saturday Evening Post (August 1, 1959) [Also re-published in January/February 1988 issue of Saturday Evening Post]
  • "The U-19’s Last Kill", Saturday Evening Post (six-part series, beginning August 22, 1959, and ending September 26, 1959)
  • "The Other Wife" (also known as "The Coin Collector"), Saturday Evening Post (January 30, 1960)
  • "An Old Tune" (also known as "Home Alone"), McCall's (October 1961)
  • "Old Enough for Love", McCall's (May 1962)
  • "The Sunny Side of the Street", McCall's (October 1962)
  • "Time Has No Boundaries" (also known as "The Face in the Photo"), Saturday Evening Post (October 13, 1962)
  • "Hey, Look at Me!" (1962)
  • "Lunch Hour Magic" (1962)
  • "Where the Cluetts Are" (1962)

Novels

Several Finney novels were adapted as feature films (Template:Dagger); see below.

Collections

  • The Third Level (1957), short story collection, in England as The Clock of Time (1958)
  • I Love Galesburg in the Springtime (1963), short story collection
  • Forgotten News: The Crime of the Century and Other Lost Stories (1983), nonfiction
  • About Time (1986), short story collection, a subset of only the time stories from The Third Level and I Love Galesburg in the Springtime
  • Three by Finney (1987), an omnibus edition of The Woodrow Wilson Dime, Marion's Wall, and The Night People

Plays

  • Telephone Roulette: A Comedy in One Act (1956)
  • This Winter's Hobby: A Play (1966)

Film adaptations

References

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