Zenna Henderson(1917-1983)
- Writer
Graduated Arizona State College, 1940. Became an elementary school
teacher, teaching in America, France, and perhaps most significantly,
in internment camps for Japanse-Americans in WWII. Frequently used her
teaching experience as a base for her fiction. First published story
was "Come On, Wagon" in "The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction" in
1951. With "Ararat" (1951) she began her sequence of stories about "The
People", her main achievement. The stories are about a the experiences
of a group of aliens with advanced mental powers stranded on Earth.
Outwardly human, they are morally superior, but must somehow come to
terms with their identity, while fitting in to our society as
painlessly (for us as well as for them) as possible. The parallels with
her WWII experiences are unmistakable. Throughout her stories, (both
"The People" sequence and others) is a warmth, gentleness and sense of
the worth of human beings.
