Edmund Cooper

Biography

Born in Marple, near Stockport, Cheshire, Cooper left school at the age of 15. He became engaged at 16 to a teacher four years older than he was, and married her three years later. He worked as a labourer, then a civil servant, and in 1944 he joined the Merchant Navy. After the war he trained as a teacher, and began to publish verse, then short stories, then novels. Deadly Image, the first novel to appear under his own name, was completed in 1957 and published in 1958 in the United States. (The novel was published in the UK later in 1958 in a variant form and under its better-known title The Uncertain Midnight.) The Uncertain Midnight was adapted without authorisation for Swiss television in 1969. His short story The Brain Child (1956) was adapted as the movie The Invisible Boy (1957), which featured the return of Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet.

Cooper reviewed science fiction for the Sunday Times from 1967 until his death in 1982.

In 2009, Carol Lake published Those Summers at Moon Farm (United Writers, Cornwall: 978-1-85200-141-4), a roman à clef about the writer and family. The Author's Comments says 'Although inspired by real people, this story is fiction'. Dedicated in part to Joan and Edmund Cooper, Lake acknowledges the help of Glynis Greenman, one of Cooper's daughters, 'for sharing memories and anecdotes'.

Work and criticism

Cooper was an atheist and an individualist. His science fiction often depicts unconventional male heroes facing unfamiliar and remote environments. His novel The Uncertain Midnight was noted for its treatment of the subject of androids, which was considered original at the time of writing. Also uniquely treated is the subject of the colonisation of planets, which is the basis of Cooper's Expendables series, published under the pen name Richard Avery (the name of the hero of Transit). The Expendables series is notable both for the diversity of its cast of characters, and for the frank nature of their conversations and attitudes on racial and sexual topics.

Two of Cooper's books depict future Earths dominated by women after the genetic or physical need for men has been reduced. His attitude to women is said to have been controversial. Cooper was quoted as saying: "Let them have totally equal competition ... they'll see that they can't make it." The theme of both books is actually the need to retain both sexes. Five to Twelve ends with the phrase "if we do not make any more mistakes, we can create a balanced world of men and women". The more cynical Who Needs Men? ends by asking whether love of woman for man is worth death for that love. Yes, says the heroine.

As George Kinley

As Broderick Quain

As Martin Lester

As Edmund Cooper

As Richard Avery

The Expendables Series:

Short stories (collections)

Short stories by Edmund Cooper

Work adapted for the screen