Alumni Profile: Jack Dann '69

Joy is the journey

Early in his life, author Jack Dann '69 suffered a life-threatening illness. After an appendectomy that went wrong, he developed peritonitis, which initially gave him a 5 percent chance of survival and then left him bedridden for four months. As a result of that profound experience, Dann realized that he'd been given a second chance at life. While reading Hemingway's Moveable Feast he realized that this chance couldn't be wasted, vowing to make his life a creative success and to never be afraid to take chances.

From a military school in upstate New York, where his gym teacher taught him to study; to Hofstra, where he studied acting; to law school; to a BA with a major of political science -- Dann has gone from a small-town boy whose friends called him the "hermit of Binghamton" to an expatriate living his dream in Australia, garnering friends and memories along the way.

Dann remembers his early days at Binghamton University with fondness, crediting Professor Gerald E. Kadish with instilling in him the ability to find the joy in all of his undertakings. He recalls that his writing career began during those undergraduate years when he met fellow students George Zebrowski and Pamela Sargent '69 and they learned the "blood and bones" of authoring together. Dann and Zebrowski collaborated on science fiction short stories, the first of which was published in 1972. After that, Dann never looked back.

Dann's journey has been varied as well as interesting. A prolific author who's written or edited more than 60 books and 100 short stories -- many of them prizewinners, Dann admits that fame and fortune didn't come all at once. A successful writer, he says, needs lots of persistence. "Writing is dangerous; the goal is excellence. It's like living on the edge to be a free-lance writer." He has been, among other things, the director of an insurance company and a troubleshooter in the cable industry. "When things got tough I started a business," he remembers. Still, for Dann, it's the journey, not the destination, that gives him joy. "I figure I have more fun than anyone I know," he laughingly commented.

Dann also trained in the method school of acting, where he immersed himself in the years of the '60s. He returned to those years for his latest book, The Rebel: An Imagined Life of James Dean, which postulates what might have happened if James Dean survived his 1955 car accident. He explains that he uses the tools he learned as a science fiction writer to work back historically, using painstaking research to create hallucinatory depictions of the past.
Dann has lived in Australia for about 11 years, where he and his wife, Dr. Janeen Webb, own a small farm overlooking the sea -- "It's like living on the set of Lord of the Rings," he says. In addition, they keep an apartment in Melbourne, a city which he says reminds him of Paris.

In talking about his life in Australia, Dann muses that being away from the U.S. has helped him to better understand our culture. He believes that we all take our own culture as our personal atmosphere when we travel away from home. "Being away from your culture allows you to really see your culture," he comments. The ensuing culture shock has been, for him, rejuvenating; he says that he's a stranger everywhere, yet comfortable everywhere.

Dann has encouraged many newcomers to his craft and uses his skills as both editor and consultant to a New York publisher. He is constantly in demand to teach writing workshops and was recently a tutor at Clarion South, an intensive six-week workshop that draws professional writers worldwide.

He keeps in close touch with the U.S., traveling back and forth at least once a year. His most recent visit brought him back to upstate New York a few months ago. One of his goals was to visit his former military school, since the setting of his current novel, Extra Duty, takes place in a similar setting, with a plot line of high-level politics, murder and mystery.

An interesting life, indeed.

-- Kathryn Brown '62