AE VAN VOGT AND THE WORLD OF NULL-A

by William Henry Sharp

IF A.E. VAN VOGT had written a story of his own life, he would perhaps have
started with this line. In a sense, it could very well have served as his epitaph. Van Vogt spent much of his life as a professional science fiction writer,
but he also had a number of other passionate interests, including general semantics. He wrote several novels that used general semantics principles to arm
his protagonists in their struggle against chaos, barbarity, and tyranny. Many
IGS members, including myself, were first attracted to general semantics through
those novels.
Van Vogt excites my interest not only as a science fiction writer but also as
a man of ideas and of greater importance, I believe, as an artist who mobilized
and directed his readers’ interest and emotions, and stirred the unspeakable
level with consummate purposefulness. When I encounter writers of such charismatic appeal, in any field, I often become as interested in them and their lives
as I do in their work

16 pages, ebook