Born Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. on Oct. 8, 1920; Herbert, originally a short story author best known for his novel “Dune” spoke passionately, and insightfully about the issues of today’s of deep ecology. In 1946 he attended the University of Washington, where he studied creative writing. Having sold his first story to Esquire Magazine in 1945, He later settled in Seattle, Washington where his wife Beverly Ann Stuart gave birth to their son Brian Patrick Herbert on June 20, 1946. For a decade, Herbert worked at the “Seattle Star” and the “Oregon Statesman” as writer and editor for the San Francisco Examiner‘s “California Living” magazine.
As a novelist; Herbert proved insightful, visionary and prophetic. Often predicting international, environmental and scoio-economic conflicts caused by “isms” such as: race, religion, class and gender – Herbert’s writings could be said to seat him firmly within the ranks of significant, emerging founders of Deep Ecology, Existentialism and Transactional Analysis; distinct branches of Psychology dealing with questions of personal existence, interpersonal relationships and our existence as a species within our social environments as they currently exist upon our planet in both their strengths and frailties. Deep connections between man, environment and society were evident throughout his work as a writer; these works included: Dune, Messiah of Dune, Chapter House Dune. The series was later continued by his son Brian Herbert who instead of taking up where his father left off displayed his own powers as a writer by creating stand alone versions of his father’s work. Dune a Hugo and Nebula Award winner – not only as a series – but as a continuing anthology proved to be a major commercial success for both Herberts. According to Wikipedia (et. al. Nov. 2007) “In 1963 and 1965, Dune was serialized in Analog magazine in two separate short stories “Dune World” and “Prophet of Dune”.”