William Ford Gibson, born
March 17,
1948 (1948-03-17) (age 60), in
Conway, South Carolina is an
American-
Canadian writer who has been called the "noir prophet" of the
cyberpunk subgenre of
science fiction. Gibson coined the term
cyberspace in 1982, and popularized the concept in his debut
novel,
Neuromancer (1984). In depicting a visualised worldwide communications network before the ubiquity of the
Internet, Gibson is credited with anticipating important aspects, and establishing the conceptual foundations, of the Internet and the
Web in particular. Although much of Gibson's reputation has remained rooted in
Neuromancer, his work has continued to evolve conceptually and stylistically. After expanding on
Neuromancer with two more novels to complete the dystopic
Sprawl trilogy, Gibson became central to an entirely new science fiction sub-genre –
steampunk – with the publication in 1990 of the alternate history novel
The Difference Engine, written in collaboration with
Bruce Sterling. In the 1990s he composed the
Bridge trilogy of novels, which focused on sociological observations of near future urban environments and late stage
capitalism. His most recent novels —
Pattern Recognition (2003), and
Spook Country (2007) — are both set in a contemporary universe and have put Gibson's work onto mainstream bestseller lists for the first time.
