It’s the birthday of British-born, Texas-living author and editor Michael Moorcock (b. 1939), known for his science fiction and fantasy works—particularly the Elric of Melniboné stories—and for his huge influence on the New Wave movement in science fiction.

Moorcock was born in Mitcham, Surrey, England. His father left the family when he was four because he “liked motorbikes more than he liked us;” Moorcock says that his dad leaving was the best thing that ever happened to him. His mother lied constantly but seems to have been loving, and once when Moorcock was in trouble for putting a dead rat in someone’s drain, she chased the police away and scolded them for wasting time on a kid who was just being a boy. (I hate it when I put a dead rat in someone’s drain and then get in trouble for it. Come on.)

Moorcock began writing for pulp magazines while still a teenager and at the tender age of 17 became the editor of the weekly magazine Tarzan Adventures. In 1964 he became editor of the New Wave science fiction journal New Worlds, which published the likes of J.G. Ballard, Thomas Disch, and Brian Aldiss. In the meantime, Moorcock was writing his own novels and short stories, many of which take place in the “Multiverse.” The character of Elric first appeared in the June 1961 issue of Science Fantasy; Elric is an amoral, cynical, anarchic albino, Moorcock’s deliberate answer to Conan-type heroes, which he hated. The Elric series includes The Dreaming City (1961), The Stealer of Souls (1963), Stormbringer (1965, 1977), and a bunch more, ending with The White Wolf’s Son (2005).

Moorcock, who’s been married three times, has three children, and loves being a grandfather (“it’s power without responsibility”), likes to work to a variety of music, everything from the Grateful Dead and Woody Guthrie to the complete symphonies of Vaughan Williams. He claims that whenever he’s working out a story’s structure, he listens to Ravel’s String Quartet in F. Moorcock moved to Texas in the 1990s because he wanted to live where there were few other Brits. “Also I wanted to move somewhere which had its own strong mythology and Texas has that in bucket-loads” (https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/a-qa-with-michael-moorcock/).

Have a fine Tuesday this gray, chilly day, maybe with a little extra half-and-half in your coffee if necessary, and stay scrupulously honest to the data.