author
Sterling E. Lanier
1927–2007
A lively science fiction writer, editor, and sculptor, he is remembered both for his own adventurous novels and for backing Frank Herbert's Dune when others passed on it. His work often mixed far-future imagination with a strong taste for myth, wilderness, and the strange.
1 Audiobook
Join Our Gang?
by Sterling E. Lanier
About the author
Born in New York City in 1927, Sterling E. Lanier built an unusually varied career. He studied anthropology and archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, worked as an editor, and also pursued sculpture. That mix of interests helped give his fiction a distinctive feel: big landscapes, deep time, and cultures that seemed to have real history behind them.
Lanier is especially notable in publishing history for championing the release of Frank Herbert's Dune while working at Chilton Books. As a writer, he became best known for Hiero's Journey and its sequel The Unforsaken Hiero, post-apocalyptic adventures that earned a loyal following among fantasy and science fiction readers.
He also wrote short fiction and the Brigadier Ffellowes stories, showing a taste for tall tales and offbeat fantasy. Lanier died in Florida in 2007, leaving behind a reputation as a colorful figure in speculative fiction: part editor, part storyteller, and part artist.