Octavia Estelle Butler (1947 - 2006)

Born 22 Jun 1947 in Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, United States

Ancestors

Died 24 Feb 2006 at age 58 in Lake Forest Park, King County, Washington, United States

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Biography

Octavia Butler is Notable.

Octavia Butler was an African American writer of science fiction. The winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, she was the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship -- less formally known as the Genius Grant.^[1] Her works explore the nature of being human, through the lenses of race, community membership, and spirituality.

She was born 22 June 1947 in Pasadena, California to Laurice and Octavia Margaret (Guy) Butler.^[2][1] She was her parents' first and only living child of five pregnancies; her father died just a few years after her birth. She stated in interview, "I had four brothers who were born and died before I was born. Some of them didn't come to term, some of them did come to term and then died. But my mother couldn't carry a child to term, for the most part something went wrong."^[3] She was raised by her mother as Baptist;^[1] later in her life, she identified herself as a former Baptist.^[4] She never married or had children.

She loved science fiction, but early on was disappointed in that genre's "unimaginative portrayal of ethnicity and class as well as by its lack of noteworthy female protagonists."^[1] Her biography states,

For some writers, science fiction serves as means to delve into fantasy. But for Butler, it largely served as a vehicle to address issues facing humanity. It was this passionate interest in the human experience that imbued her work with a certain depth and complexity.^[5]

Of her many books, one in particular may be of interest to genealogists. That book is Kindred, one of her most popular books, in which a young black woman goes back in time to save the life of one of her ancestors, who was a white slave owner. When asked why the book is so popular, she said:

Because it's accessible to a number of audience[s]: ... African American studies, women's studies and science fiction. It sometimes reaches people who might not otherwise read that kind of book, who might not read a history, a historical novel even about that period unless it was a Gone With the Wind type.^[3]

During her freshman year of night classes at Pasadena City College, she

... got the "germ of the idea" for what would become her novel Kindred. An African-American classmate involved in the Black Power Movement loudly criticized previous generations of African Americans for being subservient to whites. As Butler explained in later interviews, the young man's remarks were a catalyst that led her to respond with a story providing historical context for the subservience, showing that it could be understood as silent but courageous survival.^[1]

She went on to discus her reasons for writing the book:

I got the idea for it in college. But a lot of my reason for writing it came when I was in preschool, when my mother used to take me to work with her.

I got to see her not hearing insults and going in back doors, and even though I was a little kid, I realized it was humiliating. I knew something was wrong, it was unpleasant, it was bad. I remember saying to her a little later, at seven or eight, "I'll never do what you do, what you do is terrible." And she just got this sad look on her face and didn't say anything. I think it was the look and the memory of the indignities she endured. I just remembered that and wanted to convey that people who underwent all this were not cowards, were not people who were just too pathetic to protect themselves, but were heroes because they were using what they had to help their kids get a little further. She knew what it was to be hungry, she was a young woman during the Depression; she was taken out of school when she was ten. There were times when there was no food, there were times when they were scrambling to put a roof over their heads. I never had to worry about any of that. We never went hungry, we never went homeless. I got to go to college and she didn't even get to finish elementary school. All that because she was willing to put up with this nonsense and try to help me. I wanted to convey some of that and not have it look as though these people were deficient because they weren't fighting. They were fighting, they just weren't fighting with fists, which is sometimes easy and pointless. The quick and dirty solution is often the one that's most admired until you have to live with the results.^[3]

She died 24 February 2006 in Lake Forest Park, Washington,^[6][7][1] and was buried at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, Los Angeles County, California.^[8]

In 2021, she was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame ^[9].

Research Notes

Butler left behind a large collection of papers, including unpublished stories. The collection is housed at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. The finding aid to the collection is, according to Gerry Canavan, over 500 pages, which gives a hint about the size of the collection.^[10]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} Wikipedia contributors, "Octavia E. Butler," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Octavia_E._Butler&oldid=1091845168 (accessed June 9, 2022).
2. ↑ "California, Birth Index, 1905-1995," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VLN2-RCT : accessed 8 March 2015), Octavia Estelle Butler, 22 Jun 1947; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Joshunda Sanders, "Interview with Octavia Butler," In Motion Magazine (14 March 2004), https://inmotionmagazine.com/ac04/obutler.html: accessed 12 March 2015; Citing Africana.com February 24, 2004.
4. ↑ Octavia E. Butler, "A Brief Conversation with Octavia E. Butler," Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), autobiography: accessed 14 March 2015).
5. ↑ "Octavia E. Butler," Biography.com, website "Octavia E. Butler,": accessed 8 March 2015).
6. ↑ Margalit Fox, "Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 58," New York Times, (1 March 2006): The New York Times Company (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/books/01butler.html?_r=0 : 12 March 2015).
7. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V3RF-5JH : accessed 14 March 2015), OCTAVIA BUTLER, 24 Feb 2006; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
8. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images findagrave.com: accessed 8 March 2015), memorial page for Octavia Estelle Butler (1947–2006), Find A Grave: Memorial #13473971, citing Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum, Altadena, Los Angeles County, California; the accompanying biography by Fred Beisser (Find A Grave Member no. 46555840) is materially informative, but does not cite sources; the accompanying photographs by Row Walker (Find A Grave Member no. 46489843) and Vanita (Find A Grave Member no. 47485320) are materially informative, with one of those by Vanita providing a legible image of the inscribed data.
9. ↑ Women's Hall of Fame, 2021
10. ↑ Andrew Liptak, "Octavia E. Butler," Kirkus Reviews, (3 July 2014), Kirkus Media LLC (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/octavia-e-butler-expanding-science-fictions-horizo/ : accessed 14 March 2015).

See also:

• "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPWH-KG6N : 1 March 2021), Emanuel Butler, 1939.
• "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/QVTS-46PK : accessed 14 March 2015), Octavia E Seattle[sic] Butler; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Associated Press Archive, born-digital text.
• "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KR1X-7W5 : accessed 14 March 2015), Octavia Estelle Butler, Residence, Pasadena, California, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.
• "About." Octavia Estelle Butler: The Official Site of the Pen Lifetime Achievement and MacArthur Award Winning Writer (https://web.archive.org/web/20180922010723/http://octaviabutler.org/bio/ : accessed 14 March 2015).
• Butler, Octavia E. "NPR Essay - Un Racism Conference." NPR (http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/racism/010830.octaviabutleressay.html : accessed 12 March 2015).
• Kenan, Randall. "An Interview With Octavia E. Butler." Callaloo, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), pp. 495-504. JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/stable/2931654 : accessed 12 March 2015).
• "Butler, Octavia E." Contemporary Black Biography. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2694300018.html : accessed March 12, 2015).
• Davis, Marcia. "Octavia Butler, A Lonely, Bright Star of the Sci-Fi Universe." (28 February 2006), Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/27/AR2006022701585_pf.html : accessed 14 March 2015).
• Marshall, John. "Octavia Butler, 1947-2006: Sci-Fi Writer a Gifted Pioneer in White, Male Domain" (26 February 2006), Seattlepi.com (http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/books/article/Octavia-Butler-1947-2006-Sci-fi-writer-a-gifted-1196968.php : accessed 14 March 2015).
• "Octavia Butler." (28 May 1999), Pasadena City College
• "Octavia E. Butler : Persistence." Locus Online (2000), Locus Publications (http://www.locusmag.com/2000/Issues/06/Butler.html : accessed 12 March 2015). Citing Locus Magazine (June 2000).
• Podolsky, Marjorie J. "Octavia E. Butler." Magill’S Survey Of American Literature, Revised Edition (September 2006): 1-5. Literary Reference Center, EBSCOhost (http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library2.pima.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=103331MSA10479830000046&site=eds-live&scope=site : accessed March 12, 2015).
• Octavia Butler featured in a Google Doodle, June 22, 2018.
• Wikidata: Item Q239739