JACK FINNEY

(1911-1995)

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

Jack Finney, the author of the time-travel novel "Time and Again" and the science-fiction thriller "The Body Snatchers," died yesterday at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, Calif. He was 84 and lived in Mill Valley, Calif. Mr. Finney specialized in thrillers and works of science fiction. Two of his novels, "The Body Snatchers" and "Good Neighbor Sam" became the basis of popular films, but it was "Time and Again" (1970) that won him a devoted following. The novel, about an advertising artist who travels back to the New York of the 1880's, quickly became a cult favorite, beloved especially by New Yorkers for its rich, painstakingly researched descriptions of life in the city more than a century ago.Mr. Finney, whose original name was Walter Braden Finney, was born in Milwaukee and attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. After moving to New York and working in the advertising industry, he began writing stories for popular magazines like Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post and McCall's. His first novel, "Five Against the House" (1954), told the story of five college students who plot to rob a casino in Reno. A year later he published "The Body Snatchers" (later reissued as "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), a chilling tale of aliens who emerge from pods in the guise of humans whom they have taken over. Many critics interpreted the insidious infiltration by aliens as a cold-war allegory that dramatized America's fear of a takeover by Communists. Mr. Finney maintained that the novel was nothing more than popular entertainment. The 1956 film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" was remade twice. Mr. Finney first showed an interest in time travel in the short- story collection "The Third Level," which included stories about a commuter who discovers a train that runs between New York and the year 1894, and a man who rebuilds an old car and finds himself transported back to the 1920's. He returned to the thriller genre in "Assault on a Queen" (1959) and tried his hand at comedy in "Good Neighbor Sam" (1963), a novel based on his experiences as an adman, played by Jack Lemmon in the film version. In "The Woodrow Wilson Dime" (1968) Mr. Finney once again explored the possibilities of time travel. The dime of the title allows the novel's hero to enter a parallel world in which he achieves fame by composing the musicals of Oscar Hammerstein and inventing the zipper. With "Time and Again," Mr. Finney won the kind of critical praise and attention not normally accorded to genre fiction. Thomas Lask, reviewing the novel in The New York Times, described it, suggestively, as "a blend of science fiction, nostalgia, mysteryand acid commentary on supergovernment and its helots." Its hero, Si Morley, is a frustrated advertising artist who jumps at the chance to take part in a secret project that promises to change his life. So it does. He travels back to New York in 1882, moves into the Dakota apartment building on Central Park West and experiences the fabulous ordinariness of a bygone age: its trolleys, horse-drawn carriages, elevated lines, and gaslights. This year Mr. Finney published a sequel to the novel, "From Time to Time." Mr. Finney also wrote "Marion's Wall" (1973), about a silent-film actress who, in an attempt to revive her film career, enters the body of a shy woman, and "The Night People" (1977). His other fictional works include "The House of Numbers" (1957) and the short-story collection "I Love Galesburg in the Springtime" (1963). He also wrote "Forgotten News: The Crime of the Century and Other Lost Stories" (1983) about sensational events of the 19th century. He is survived by his wife, Marguerite; a son, Kenneth; a daughter, Marguerite, and a granddaughter.

Cult sci-fi writer from Mill Valley dies at 84 Jack Finney, author of such cult science fiction classics as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Time and Again, died of pneumonia and emphysema Tuesday at Marin General Hospital. He was 84. The Mill Valley author had most recently published a sequel to his 1970 novel Time and Again, which never went out of print and eventually sold more than 250,000 copies. Robert Redford announced plans last year to produce and star in a movie, and there is reportedly a Broadway musical in the works based on Time and Again. The delightful story of a contemporary New York art director, Simon Morley, who joins a top-secret government project and is sent back in time to 1882 Manhattan, Time and Again attracted such a following over the years it even spawned an eponymously named Manhattan restaurant. In the sequel, From Time to Time, published in February by Simon & Schuster, Morley is recalled from his happy 19th century marriage to the present and is sent on another time-travel mission to prevent World War I. Mr. Finney, a dryly witty man who generally avoided publicity and whose photo does not tend to appear on his dust jackets, told a New York Times reporter last year that From Time to Time would probably be his last book. But his wife of 46 years, Marguerite, said the family found some notes for a new novel Wednesday. "We don't know what it's about," she said. "But he was clearly thinking about another book. He'd done some research." Born in Milwaukee, Mr. Finney was an advertising copywriter in New York, bored with his job, when he started writing fiction. His first story, "The Widow's Walk," won a contest sponsored by Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He moved with Marguerite to Marin County in the early 1950s, where he wrote full time, and they raised two children, Marguerite and Kenneth. His wife says, with a dry laugh, that living with a writer was "very interesting." The author of eight novels, several short-story collections, a book of nonfiction and a couple of plays, Mr. Finney could have been a celebrity. Several of his books were made into movies - Body Snatchers was filmed twice - and his fans were devoted and legion. But Marguerite Finney said that her husband "was actually a very shy man. He enjoyed writing entertainment, and he loved receiving fan letters and knowing that people liked his writing because his main purpose was to entertain people." Modest about his achievements, Marguerite said that his close friends tended to be "anything but writers," but he did have a few, including San Francisco mystery novelist Collin Wilcox, who had known him for some 25 years. "He was a one-of-a-kind guy," said Wilcox. "He was a first-class talent, but he was very low-key about his success. He always had a unique point of view, and he could be prickly and contrarian, but it was always with a great deal of humor, never mean-spirited. It was wonderful to hear him talk about the craft and the life." Mr. Finney's modesty was legendary. Wilcox said they were having lunch once "and the subject of Broadway musicals came up and Jack said, in a bemused sort of voice, 'There must be a trend going on. I have five properties in some stage of development.' I was speechless. I mean, I saw him all the time, and he'd never even mentioned it. But that's how he was." Mr. Finney spent years researching his books, and said in an interview for Focus magazine last year that he liked "to be pretty explicit." He wanted to know everything about the period of his obsession and used libraries all over the country, an exercise he called "a nice way to spend your days." Mr. Finney is survived by his wife; his son and daughter; a daughter-in-law, Sue Ferguson; and a granddaughter, Annelise.

BODY SNATCHERS AUTHOR DIES AT 84
Jack Finney, author of The Body Snatchers, which was turned into a cult film classic, and the hugely popular time travel novel Time and Again, has died of pneumonia. He was 84. Mr. Finney died Tuesday at Marin General Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Paula Avirett said. Although his name was not well-known to most filmgoers, Finney wrote several books that were made into motion pictures, including Five Against the House, Good Neighbor Sam, House of Numbers, and Assault on a Queen. Time and Again, which appeared in 1970, attracted little attention at first but gradually developed a wide following. Its story, complete with carefully researched detail and touching romance, was about a 20th century New Yorker who travels back to the 1880s. Though it was never made into a movie, plans for both a film and a play have been discussed. A sequel, From Time to Time, was published this year; in it, the hero is sent back to 1912. In one of his rare interviews, published in The New York Times in March, Mr. Finney groused about a critic who said he was glamorizing the past. "I go to great pains to show that there was great sadness and poverty in the 1880s," he said. "And I wish people would stop assuming I want to live in the past. I don't!" The Body Snatchersi, his second book, became the 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, that starred Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. In it, the inhabitants of the small town of Santa Mira - modeled on Mr. Finney's home town, Mill Valley - are taken over by pods that turn into soulless, robot-like imitations of the people themselves. Some viewers took the story as an allegory for the conformist dangers of either Communism or McCarthyism. Mr. Finney dismissed such views. Invasion of the Body Snatchers later was remade twice, most recently last year. Mr. Finney didn't see a cent from the sequels; he had sold away all film rights for $7,500 in the 1950s.Mr. Finney is survived by his wife, Marguerite; a daughter; and a son. The family said no funeral service would be held.

 
Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Scribner 1998 (revidierte Fassung). ISBN 0-684-85258-6.  Bestellung bei Amazon.de: 10$