They mocked her "science fantasy" Then she wrote Empire Strikes Back - Charlie Jane Anders

"Also, in her introduction to The Best of Planet Stories #1 in 1976, Brackett describes "space opera" as "a pejorative term often applied to a story that has an element of adventure." And she offers a defense of space opera as "the folk-tale, the hero-tale, of our particular niche in history." Sputnik, she writes, startled the wits out of all the high-minded, important people who hadn't wanted to talk about space. But she adds: But the space opera has been telling us tales of spaceflight, of journeys to other worlds in this solar system... These stories served to stretch our little minds, to draw us out beyond our narrow skies into the vast glooms of interstellar space, where the great suns ride in splendor and the bright nebulae fling their veils of fire parsecs-long across the universe; where the Coal-Sack and the Horsehead make patterns of black mystery; where the Cepheid variables blink their evil eyes and a billion nameless planets may harbor life-forms infinitely numerous and strange. Escape fiction? Yes, indeed! But in its own ironic way, as we see now, it was an escape into a reality which some people are even now trying to fight off." 5 out of 5 http://io9.com/they-mocked-her-science-fantasy-then-she-wrote-empir-489586578

Leigh Brackett's Planetary Romances - Andrew Liptak

"Brackett was born on December 7th, 1915 in Los Angeles, California to a family of declining fortune. Her early life was met with hardship early on in 1918 when her father passed away, one of the many casualties of the global flu epidemic. After that, her family moved quite a bit, and Brackett later recalled that she had a haphazard education as they travelled the country before settling down. Her love of science fiction came when she was 8 years old, after picking up a copy of Edgar Rice Burrough's second Barsoom novel, The Gods of Mars. She later said that she knew from that point what she wanted to do: "I was never the same after that. Suddenly, I became aware of other world out there and then, from that time on, I was destined to be a science fiction writer."" 4 out of 5 https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/leigh-bracketts-planetary-romances/

Library of America: On the Long Tomorrow - Nicola Griffith

"The opening of The Long Tomorrow reads like a King James Bible for the American myth: sure, rhythmic, and implacable. Brackett sets up her major theme in the first sentence: knowledge is sin, and fourteen-year-old Len Colter is about to take the step that will lead to his loss of Eden. This is the theme of the Bildungsroman: loss of innocence, change, and the journey from safety into the unknown in pursuit of knowledge. But because Brackett's ambition was huge, she chose for her setting a post-nuclear Ruined Earth. She aimed for no less than the first serious science fiction novel of character. In mid-century North America, I doubt there was any writer better equipped for the challenge." 3.5 out of 5 http://www.loa.org/sciencefiction/appreciation/griffith.jsp

Leigh Brackett: American Writer - Howard Andrew Jones

"This 4th of July I thought I’d take a look at one of my very favorite writers, the late, great Leigh Brackett, queen of planetary adventure. Only a few generations ago planetary adventure fiction had a few givens. First, it usually took place in our own solar system. Second, our own solar system was stuffed with inhabitable planets. Everyone knew that Mercury baked on one side and froze on the other, but a narrow twilight band existed between the two extremes where life might thrive. Venus was hot and swampy, like prehistoric Earth had been, and Mars was a faded and dying world kept alive by the extensive canals that brought water down from the ice caps. To enjoy Brackett, you have to get over the fact that none of this is real — which really shouldn’t be hard if you enjoy reading about vampires, telepaths, and dragons, but hey, there you go. Yeah, Mars doesn’t have a breathable atmosphere, or canals, or ancient races. If you don’t read her because you can’t get past that, you’re a fuddy duddy and probably don’t like ice cream." 3.5 out of 5 http://www.blackgate.com/2012/07/04/leigh-brackett-american-writer/

On Rio Bravo - Angie Dickinson

"CM: Why does Rio Bravo hold up so well these many years later?:

AD: Number One, John Wayne. It’s one of the roles where he is so different, in that he’s, how can we say, adorable? He’s not defending the fort, so to speak. I think it’s a side of him we didn’t see in a lot of his movies. He’s enjoying this young woman. And while he’s enchanted with her, he’s also adorable with Walter Brennan. And he’s charming and loving with Dean Martin, and with Ricky Nelson. So we see a warmth and a cuteness about him that we don’t see in many of his other movies.

CM: One also doesn’t always see a John Wayne movie where he confronts a strong female character. How did you two create that rapport?

AD: Oh, it was in the writing. The writing is not only underrated but ignored in this movie, because it looks so natural. You forget those words were all written (by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett). It was romantic. Billy Wilder called Rio Bravo a suspense movie, but the suspense was also there in the romance."


3.5 out of 5

http://austin.culturemap.com/newsdetail/03-06-12-11-55-angie-dickinson-to-accept-award-at-the-texas-film-hall-of-fame-awards/

Women In Science Fiction and Fantasy - Robin Anne Reid

Brackett, Leigh (1915-1978)

Leigh Brackett was a popular presence in mid-twentieth-century American science fiction. She is best known for her skill in writing space opera —she was labeled the "Queen of Space Opera"—as well as for her screenplay for the second Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Brackett's writing is characterized by vivid imagery and realistic dialogue. She worked across a range of media and influenced numerous other writers.

Brackett's early works, short stories such as "Martian Quest" and "Enchantress of Venus," were published in the pulp science fiction magazines: her first stories appeared in Astounding Stories in 1940. Despite the reputation of the pulps as a male-dominated field of production, women writers such as Brackett did play a role in the shaping and development of the genre. In a period where space opera was popular, Brackett's work showed the influence of key writers in this field— particularly, Edgar Rice Burroughs—while still constructing an original voice. Her knowing, even playful, reworkings of common ideas in the subgenre led her to construct intricately imagined societies, rounded characters, and memorably vivid landscapes. Despite using male protagonists, she portrayed female characters as active, capable, and complex. Brackett's longer fiction, including The Sword of Rhiannon (1953), The Ginger Star (1974), and The Hounds of Skaith (1976), depicted worlds and societies undergoing social change, embedded within their environment and with their own histories. She also explored the consequences of a nuclear apocalypse and the construction of a rural religious community in The Long Tomorrow (1955).

Brackett's adaptability was shown in her ability to cross media, demonstrated by the plays and television and film screenplays she wrote. She also crossed genres, writing westerns (Rio Brauo, 1959) and film noir {The Big Sleep, 1946). She wrote the first draft of the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back shortly before her death. Brackett was an active part of the science fiction writing community: she collaborated with Ray Bradbury and with her husband, Edmond Hamilton. Other science fiction writers, notably Marion Zimmer Bradley and Michael Moorcroft, have acknowledged Brackett's influence.

Brackett has occupied an uneasy place in the feminist science fiction canon, caught between the desire to reclaim a "herstory" of science fiction and a critical preference for explicitly feminist texts. Brackett is a key example of women that published science fiction before Second Wave feminism. However, a number of factors have resulted in the lack of critical attention to her work. She is cited as an exemplar in response to feminist critiques but worked mainly in the subgenre of space opera—not known as an especially fertile area for feminist writers. She was not engaged with feminism either in her life or in her texts. Nonetheless, Brackett's work exemplifies the negotiation of generic tropes undertaken by women writers of science fiction.


3.5 out of 5

A Memory of Murder - Ray Bradbury

"This is a collection of Bradbury's very early crime stories, some of his first fiction sales. It comes complete with a short but revealing introduction that explains why the book is dedicated to Leigh Brackett."

Unseen.

http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2011/12/forgotten-books-memory-of-murder-ray.html

"Bradbury provides an interesting introduction, where he explains his debt to Leigh Brackett (friend and sometimes collaborator; herself a past master of the mystery genre). "

http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in5379/books/memory_murder.htm

The Big Jump - Leigh Brackett

Phoenix Pick have done an edition :-


3.5 out of 5

http://www.phoenixpick.com/catalogue/PPickings.htm

A Working Script from Rio Bravo - Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman

An acution for :-

"A Working Script from "Rio Bravo." Warner Bros., 1959. Yellow covers, screen play by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett, dated "February 26, 1958," marked "Final," 122 pages, every single page folded in half by Wayne (except the last three) as was his habit with scripts he used on set, not annotated. (Please note all pages are frayed and wrinkled.)
With JW's Folding: 11" x 5"; Unfolded: 11" x 9"
Estimate: $5,000 - $7,000."


5 out of 5

http://entertainment.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7045&lotNo=44082

Sense of Wonder - Leigh Brackett

"Leigh Brackett – Born on December 7th, 1915 in Los Angeles, California, her birth name was Leigh Douglass Brackett and she was the daughter of William Franklin and Margaret Douglass Brackett. Her father was a certified public accountant who died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. Brackett was subsequently raised in Santa Monica by her mother and grandparents."


3.5 out of 5

http://wonder.swordsmith.com/guide/index.php/archives/417

Leigh Brackett: Heroic Fantasy at its Best - John M. Whalen

"Whenever there are discussions of heroic fantasy fiction, the usual names are trotted out: Howard, Leiber, Carter, Moorcock. But there is one name that is sometimes overlooked and really should be added to that list. Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) may best be known to some as a Hollywood screenwriter, but she also wrote some of the best heroic fantasy stories ever published."


3.5 out of 5

http://www.roguebladesentertainment.com/2011/06/leigh-brackett-heroic-fantasy-at-its-best/

Leigh Brackett and Howard Hawks at work on Rio Bravo

""Tuning in to the same channel": Leigh Brackett and director Howard Hawks at work on Rio Bravo(Photo: Museum of Modern Art)
I don't like to say this, because it sounds presumptuous, but Hawks and I kind of tuned in on the same channel with regard to the characters, and I think this is probably one reason that I worked with him so long. He was able to get out of me what he wanted because I had somewhat the same attitude towards the characters as he did."



5 out of 5

http://scribomatic.com/go-into-the-story-how-they-write-a-script-leigh-brackett-06-2011/

Overlooked Movie: Crime Doctor’s Manhunt - Randy Johnson

A blog post about this work :-

"An ex-soldier comes to Dr. Ordway for help, telling of experiencing temporary loss of memory, only to come out of it wandering the same strange part of the city. Ordway agrees to take him on as a patient and he leaves. Shortly a young woman stops him, his fiancee, wanting to know what he wanted with the Doctor. Ordway can’t even admit he’s a patient."


3.5 out of 5

http://randall120.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/overlooked-movie-crime-doctors-manhunt/

Earth's Renaissance - Leigh Brackett

"Earth's Renaissance" an essay by Leigh Brackett (Stfette, #2, July '41)


Unseen.

On Robert E. Howard - Leigh Brackett

"Howard had a great love for all that was lost and strange and faraway. One thinks of him sitting at his typewriter in Cross Plains, Texas, a young man dreaming great dreams of gods and heroes far beyond the narrow boundaries of his own space and time, roaming free across the wonderful landscapes he saw in his mind."


4 out of 5

http://theblogthattimeforgot.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-praise-of-robert-e-howard.html

The Mark of Zorro

A favorite film of Brackett's when younger.


4 out of 5

Douglas Fairbanks Sr

A favourite actor of Brackett's in her youth.


4 out of 5

The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

A particular book that influenced Brackett in her youth.


4 out of 5

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/236

P. C. Wren

A writer of influence Brackett read in her youth.


4 out of 5

Jack London

A writer of influence Brackett read in her youth.


4 out of 5