Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography/Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Additional collection guides
Descriptive Summary
Title: Willis E. McNelly Science Fiction Collection: Frank Herbert papers
Dates: 1950-1986
Collection Number: SC-06-FH
Creator/Collector:
Herbert, Frank
Extent: 78 Document boxes; 13 cartons of research files.
Repository:
California State University, Fullerton. University Archives and Special Collections
Fullerton, California 92834-4150
Abstract: The Science Fiction Manuscripts Collection includes original manuscripts, working papers, correspondence, first editions,
critical studies and ephemera pertaining to Frank Herbert's life and the works included in the collection.
Language of Material: English
Access
Open for research.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the California State University, Fullerton University Archives and Special Collections. No part
may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the University Archives & Special Collections, CSU Fullerton
or the copyright holder.
Requests for permission to quote from these materials should be addressed to:
California State University, Fullerton
University Archives & Special Collections
800 N. State College, PLS-352 |Fullerton, CA 92834-3599
(657) 278-3444
Permission requests for photograph use can be made by the completion of an Application for use-images form.
Preferred Citation
Willis E. McNelly Science Fiction Collection: Frank Herbert papers. California State University, Fullerton. University Archives
and Special Collections
Biography/Administrative History
Frank Herbert was born in Tacoma, Washington on October 8, 1920 to Frank Herbert, Sr. and Eileen Herbert. In 1939, at age
19, he lied about his age to get his first newspaper job at the Glendale Star during a short stint in Los Angeles. Herbert
moved to Salem in 1940 where he worked for the Oregon Statesman newspaper as an “on call” jack of all trades. At various times
in his life he worked as a professional photographer, TV cameraman, radio news commentator, oyster diver, jungle survivor
instructor, lay analyst, speech writer, and teacher of creative writing.
In 1940 he married Flora Parkinson with whom he had a daughter, Penny, they divorced in 1945. After serving in the U.S. Navy’s
Seabees as a photographer during World War II, Herbert met Beverly Ann Stuart in a creative writing class at the University
of Washington. They married in Seattle, Washington on June 20, 1946 and had two sons, Brian Patrick Herbert and Bruce Calvin
Herbert. He returned to freelance journalism after a dropping out of University and worked at the Seattle Star, and later
the Oregon Statesman, and as a writer and editor for the San Francisco Examiner's California Living magazine.
Herbert's published his first science fiction pieces in Astounding Science Fiction and Amazing Stories in the 1950s. He retired
from journalism in 1972 and moved back to his home town of Port Townsend to continue writing the Dune Chronicles: Dune Messiah,
Children of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune as well in addition to several other science fiction novels. His last published
novel, Man of Two Worlds, was written in collaboration with his son, Brian Herbert. Herbert died at age 65 died of a pulmonary
embolism on February 11, 1986 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection includes original manuscripts, working papers, correspondence, first editions, critical studies and ephemera
pertaining to Frank Herbert's life and the works included in the collection.
Indexing Terms
Science fiction
Environmental protection--Fiction
Dune (novel)
Additional collection guides