Divine Emperor of Dune

Frank Herbert

(1920–1986) American writer Frank Herbert was born in Tacoma and graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle. He was a man of many trades: he worked as a reporter, editor, professional photographer and cameraman, commentated for local radio stations, went to sea as an oyster diver, and served as a jungle survival instructor. His first short story, Looking for Something?, was published in the magazine Startling Stories. He then wrote about twenty other short stories published in various sci-fi magazines, and in 1955 he published his first novel, The Dragon in the Sea. It was well-received by critics, as were his other novels The Green Brain (1966), Destination: Void (1966), The Eyes of Heisenberg (1966), The Heaven Makers (1968), The Santaroga Barrier (1968), The Godmakers (1972), and Hellstrom's Hive (1973). However, true success did not come until 1965 with the novel Dune. The first part was published as Dune World in December 1963 in the leading sci-fi magazine Analog. The story then continued as The Prophet of Dune due to reader interest. For the book edition, Herbert combined both parts and titled them simply and aptly Dune. The book won the Hugo Award in 1966 and the first-ever Nebula Award in the same year. The author then expanded on the theme in five sequels capturing the subsequent fate of the planet Arrakis and the struggle for its control. In 1984, David Lynch directed a film adaptation of Dune, and in 2000, a co-produced three-part miniseries was also created, which was partly filmed in the Czech Republic.