Leigh Brackett

Born in Los Angeles in 1915, Leigh Brackett became one of the standout voices of mid-20th-century science fiction. She built a strong reputation in magazine fiction and novels, especially for her fast-moving planetary adventures and richly imagined settings, and she was widely known as the “Queen of Space Opera.”

Her career was unusually broad. Alongside her fiction, she worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and received credit on major films including The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, and The Long Goodbye. Late in her career, she also wrote the first draft for The Empire Strikes Back, linking her classic pulp storytelling style to one of the biggest screen franchises of all time.

Brackett died in 1978, but her work has remained influential for readers who love adventurous, atmospheric science fiction with a strong sense of place. She is still remembered as a writer who helped shape both the Golden Age of science fiction and the language of screen adventure.