George Slusser
Professor of Comparative Literature and Languages, Emeritus
George Edgar Slusser, professor emeritus of Comparative Literature and Languages and curator emeritus of the Eaton Collection at UC Riverside (UCR) died on November 4, 2014, at his home in Highland, California.
Dr. Slusser was born in San Francisco on July 14, 1939. He earned a bachelor’s degree phi beta kappa from UC Berkeley, his Diplôme d’Études Françaises from the Université of Poitiers, and his Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University, where he wrote his dissertation on E.T.A. Hoffman, a 19th century German Romantic author of fantasy and horror. From 1963 to 1965, he served in a US Army intelligence unit in Germany.
Dr. Susser joined the UCR Library in 1979 and, beginning in 1991, held a joint position as professor of comparative literature until his retirement in 2005. His career centered on science fiction studies, and he is widely credited with establishing science fiction studies as a field of academic inquiry both at UCR and beyond.
Dr. Susser wrote or edited nearly 40 books and more than 100 articles. Among the scholarly books he wrote or edited were “Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in His Own Land,” “The Farthest Shores of Ursula K. LeGuin,” “The Bradbury Chronicles,” “Harlan Ellison: Unrepentant Harlequin,” “The Space Odysseys of Arthur C. Clarke,” and “The Delany Intersection: Samuel R. Delany Considered as a Writer of Semi-Precious Words.” He published several books with his wife, Danièle Châtelain-Slusser, an associate professor of French at the University of Redlands, including “Three Science Fiction Novellas: From Prehistory to the End of Mankind “Three Science Fiction Novellas: From Prehistory to the End of Mankind,” a 2012 translation of three novellas by Belgian science fiction writer J.H. Rosnyaîné (1856-1940).
Under his leadership, the Eaton Collection—formally known as the J. Lloyd Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Literature—grew into an internationally renowned collection that includes over 300,000 books, journals, fanzines, comic books, authors’ manuscripts, media, and memorabilia. Dr. Susser taught the first courses in science fiction studies at UCR. He also originated the Eaton Conference, an annual event dedicated to science fiction studies and highlighting the Eaton Collection, in 1979, and continued chairing the conference for more than 20 years.
In 1986, Dr. Slusser received the Pilgrim Award, presented by the Science Fiction Research Association for lifetime achievement in the field of science fiction scholarship. He also was the recipient of the Harvard Traveling Fellowship and Fulbright Awards to Germany and France. He also received the Edward A. Dickson Emeritus/a Professorship Award from UCR to support research by emeritus faculty.
He is survived by his wife, Danièle Châtelain-Slusser.
