Father of Cyberpunk: Who is William Gibson?

Neuromancer is William Gibson's first cyberpunk novel, which brought him worldwide fame. Nebula, which was called the triple crown of science fiction after its publication in 1984, won the Philip K Dick Memorial and Hugo awards.

William Gibson's early works were about the possible effects of cybernetics and cyberspace technologies on the human race in the future. The author's fiction written in the 80s leaves a cold and gloomy impression.

William Gibson, also known as the prophet of the cyberpunk genre, is a Canadian-American science fiction writer. In his 1982 short story Burning Chrome, Gibson first coined the concept of cyberspace and later used it as a basis for his 1984 novel Neuromancer, which is widely regarded as his first novel. Gibson was considered an icon of the information age before the Internet became widespread in the 1990s. He is also known for very accurately predicting television reality, video games, the rise of the internet, and its upcoming popularity.

William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his early works were noir, near-future stories that explored the effects of technology, cybernetics, and computer networks on humans—a "combination of lowlife and high tech" —and helped to create an iconography for the information age before the ubiquity of the Internet in the 1990s. Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" for "widespread, interconnected digital technology" in his short story "Burning Chrome" (1982), and later popularized the concept in his acclaimed debut novel Neuromancer (1984). These early works of Gibson's have been credited with "renovating" science fiction literature in the 1980s.

In 1999, The Guardian introduced William Gibson as the most important writer of the last twenty years. In addition to contributing to various publications, he has also written more than twenty short stories and ten acclaimed novels. Gibson managed to leave a strong impact on other science fiction writers, academics, technology, and cyberculture. He has also collaborated widely, from the performing arts to music and the film industry, in addition to a variety of projects.

William Ford Gibson was born on March 17, 1948, in Conway, South Carolina. But he spent most of his childhood in Wytheville, Virginia, where he moved with his mother after his father's death. Having lived a lonely childhood, Gibson wanted nothing more than to be a science fiction writer from the age of twelve. An anthology from Beat at the age of 13 introduced Gibson to the works of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burroughs, and sparked his interest in the genre.

Upset by his failures in school, his mother sent Gibson to the Southern Arizona School for Boys in Tucson, Arizona. But Gibson left school at the age of 18 after his mother's death. He moved to Canada in 1967. Here he wandered around, unemployed and homeless, for a while before joining a CBC show about hippie culture in Toronto. He also met Deborah Jean Thompson in Toronto. The two married in Vancouver in 1972.

Gibson, who won a scholarship from a charity organization, earned a BA in English at the University of British Columbia. Influenced by various genres of fiction and literature, Gibson wrote his first short story, Fragments of a Hologram Rose. Gibson further strengthened his writing skills by pursuing a master's degree in science fiction. He met punk musician and writer John Shirley at a science fiction convention held in Vancouver in 1980. Shirley not only encouraged Gibson to pursue a full-time career but also became his lifelong friend.

Most of Gibson's early writings are cybernetic-themed and science fiction works set in the near future. The most famous of these are his short story Burning Chrome and his first novel Neuromancer. Following the success of Neuromancer, Gibson starred in Count Zero (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988), The Difference Engine (1990), Virtual Light (1993), All Tomorrow's Parties (1999), Pattern Recognition (2003), Spook Country (2007) and Zero History (2010).