Sterling E. Lanier

Sterling Edmund Lanier, writer and editor: born New York 18 December 1927; twice married (one son, one daughter); died Sarasota, Florida 28 June 2007.

The science-fiction writer Sterling E. Lanier may go down in literary history for one moment of fame. In 1965, during a stint as editor at Chilton Books, a smallish Philadelphia publisher, he championed the publication of Frank Herbert's Dune, a galaxy-spanning, philosophically ambitious ecological drama which has sold hugely over the decades, inspiring many imitations and at least one film.

But in truth, the man himself is far more than a footnote in another's brilliant career. Sterling Edmund Lanier had a full and ample life. He served in the US Army in the Second World War. He graduated from Harvard University in 1951, and spent five years at the University of Philadelphia (1953-58), becoming active as an archaeological/ anthropological researcher, in which capacity he worked at the Winterthur Museum, 1958-60.

Lanier began publishing science fiction in 1961, publishing six books before leaving the field in 1986. In later years he worked as a sculptor - some of his work being exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington - and jeweller. He lived for many years in Florida. He was amiable, ironic, witty, resigned.

His first adult novel is by far his most important work. Hiero's Journey (1973), is set in a not-unfamiliar Ruined Earth environment five millennia after a nuclear "event". The questing hero of the tale progresses through a world irradiated by strangeness, and oppressed by recidivist technologists caught in a state of profound denial about the appallingness of their ancestors's deeds. Opposing them is the Brotherhood of the Eleventh Commandment. The commandment is simple: "Thou shalt not despoil the Earth and the life thereon." The tale is supple and swift and compelling. For those familiar with it, Hiero's Journey remains unforgettable; and seems more and more prescient.

Other work - notably The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes (1972), a set of club stories in the mode of Lord Dunsany - shares Lanier's remarkable grasp of story-telling technique, and the quiet luxuriance of his wit. Together, his life and his books constitute a small, sharp, pleasing footnote in the story of American letters in the 20th century.

John Clute