Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. (October 8, 1920 – February 11, 1986) was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1920. He took his first newspaper job at the age of 19. After serving in the US Navy as a photographer, he studied briefly at the University of Washington. His first science-fiction story, ‘Looking for Something’, was published in the pulp-science-fiction magazine Startling Stories (1952), and his first novel, The Dragon in the Sea (1956) was serialised soon afterwards.

In 1959 he began work on his most famous work, Dune, which was serialised by Analog magazine between 1963 and 1965. Finally published as a book, with modifications, in 1965, Dune won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Hugo Award in 1966, and Herbert went on to write five popular sequels. Herbert wrote for a number of newspapers, including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, lectured at the University of Washington, and served as an ecological consultant in Vietnam and Pakistan.

He published many other science-fiction novels, such as his WorShip series and the ConSentient novels, but Dune, which was made into a film in 1984 (two years before Herbert’s death), and into a television series in 2000, remains his most enduring work.