Science Fiction Author Jerry Pournelle Has Died

September 8, 2017

Instapundit relayed information from Alex Pournelle that Science Fiction author Jerry Pournelle has died.
Wikipedia also confirms the death of Jerry Pournelle.
Jerry Pournelle wrote online at Chaos Manor.


In 1985, Footfall, in which Robert A. Heinlein was a thinly veiled minor character, reached the number one spot on the New York Times Best Seller List. Another bestseller, Lucifer’s Hammer (1977), reached number two. Both novels were written with Larry Niven.

Pournelle wrote The Strategy of Technology (1970). The Strategy has been used as a textbook at the United States Military Academy (West Point), the United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs), the Air War College, and the National War College.

Pournelle’s work in the aerospace industry includes time he worked at Boeing in the late 1950s. While there, he worked on Project Thor, conceiving of “hypervelocity rod bundles”, also known as “rods from God”. He edited Project 75, a 1964 study of 1975 defense requirements. He worked in operations research at The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division, and was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. In 1989, Pournelle, Max Hunter, and retired Army Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham made a presentation to then Vice President Dan Quayle promoting development of the DC-X rocket.

During the 1970s and 1980s, he also published articles on military tactics and war gaming in the military simulations industry in Avalon Hill’s magazine The General. He had previously won first prize in a late 1960s essay contest run by the magazine on how to end the Vietnam war. That led him into correspondences with some of the early figures in Dungeons and Dragons and other fantasy role-playing games.


Of his works I've only read Lucifer's Hammer but it was an extremely enjoyable read.