WRITER

William Gibson

1948 - Today

Photo of William Gibson

Icon of person William Gibson

William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his early works were noir, near-future stories that explored the effects of technology, cybernetics, and computer networks on humans, a "combination of lowlife and high tech"—and helped to create an iconography for the Information Age before the ubiquity of the Internet in the 1990s. Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" for "widespread, interconnected digital technology" in his short story "Burning Chrome" (1982), and later popularized the concept in his acclaimed debut novel Neuromancer (1984). Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William Gibson has received more than 6,391,929 page views. His biography is available in 54 different languages on Wikipedia. William Gibson is the 1,014th most popular writer (down from 976th in 2019), the 1,175th most popular biography from United States (down from 1,154th in 2019) and the 115th most popular American Writer.

William Gibson is most famous for his novel Neuromancer, which has been called the "best cyberpunk novel ever written" and "the archetypal cyberpunk work."

Memorability Metrics

  • 6.4M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 61.59

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 54

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.98

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.49

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

A cry of players
Drama
THE STORY: As described in Variety, ...is of Shakespeare's life as a young man in Stratford. Since only fragments of the poet's life are actually known, A CRY OF PLAYERS is Gibson's fictionalized creation, perhaps based on published conjecture. The
1968
The seesaw log
1959
Two for the seesaw
Drama
William Gibson Comedy Characters: 1 male, 1 female Interior Set This is the long-run Broadway hit that gained stardom for Anne Bancroft in the role of girl from the Bronx whose love for a lonesome lawyer brings a few months of happiness into their lives. The lawyer is married to a beautiful, well-to-do girl in the midwest whose family sets the pace in local society and intends to run his marriage and his career as well. He has rebelled, come to New York, and taken up residence with this intriguing young woman. He is lonely and in need of consolation; she is one of those rare women whose only purpose seems to be making others happy. Their briefly fulfilling relationship is unhappily destined to failure: he is a cultured gentile with a wife and painful memories while she is a plain Jewish girl with little education and a horrible Bronx accent. They share happy and humorous moments together, but they both see with sadness the utter hopelessness of the affair. It's a whale of a hit, a bittersweet joy ride. - The New York Mirror . An absorbing, affectionate, and funny delight. - The New York Daily News
1960
Golda's balcony
Performing Arts
(Applause Books). The rise of Golda Meir from impoverished Russian schoolgirl to Prime Minister of Israel is one of the most amazing stories of the 20th century. Now her life has been transformed into a one-woman play of overwhelming power and triumph by William Gibson, author of The Miracle Worker . Golda's Balcony earned actress Tovah Feldshuh a 2003 Drama Desk award. "Enlightening ... Now, hearing from someone who was there at the birth of the country, who sacrificed to make that happen, helps remind us where the Middle East standoff came from and why it never seems to end." The New York Times "A valentine to the famously tough prime minister." New York Post
2003
The Miracle Worker
Fiction
A text of the television play, intended for reading, of Anne Sullivan Macy's attempts to teach her pupil, Helen Keller, to communicate.
1956
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Science fiction, Fiction, general, American literature
Mona Lisa Overdrive is the final novel of the William Gibson's cyberpunk Sprawl trilogy. Living in the vast computer landscape of cyberspace, young Mona taps into the mind of world-famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell who deciphers cyperspace plans, including those devised by Japanese underworld.
1987
Idoru
Fiction, Virtual reality, Rock musicians
From first page Berkley paperback September 1997: **21st century Tokyo, after the millennial quake. Is something different here, in the very nature of reality? Or is it that something violently *new* is about to happen...** *Colin Laney is here looking for work. He is an intuitive fisher for patterns of information, the "signature" an individual creates simply by going about the business of living. But Laney knows how to sift for the dangerous bits. Which makes him useful -- to certain people.* *Chia McKenzie is here on a rescue mission. She's fourteen. Her idol is the singer Rez, of the band Lo/Rez. When the Seattle chapter of the Lo/Rez fan club decided that he might be in trouble in Tokyo, they sent Chia to check it out.* *Rei Toei is the* idoru -- *the beautiful, entirely virtual media star adored by all Japan. Rez had declared that he will marry her. This is the rumor that has brought Chia to Tokyo. True or not, the* idoru *and the powerful interests surrounding her are enough to put all their lives in danger.*
1996
The Miracle Worker
Drama, Women teachers, Deafblind women
A text of the television play, intended for reading, of Anne Sullivan Macy's attempts to teach her pupil, Helen Keller, to communicate.
1956
Count Zero
Long Now Manual for Civilization, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, American literature
Turner, corporate mercenary, wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him for a mission more dangerous than the one he's recovering from: Maas-Neotek's chief of R&D is defecting. Turner is the one assigned to get him out intact, along with the biochip he's perfected. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties--some of whom aren't remotely human. Bobby Newmark is entirely human: a rustbelt data-hustler totally unprepared for what comes his way when the defection triggers war in cyberspace. With voodoo on the Net and a price on his head, Newmark thinks he's only trying to get out alive. The second novel of William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, *Count Zero* is a stylish, streetsmart, frighteningly probable parable of the future and sequel to Neuromancer.
1986
Neuromancer
Information superhighway, Computer hackers, Conspiracies
The first of William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, *Neuromancer* is the classic cyberpunk novel. The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, *Neuromancer* was the first fully-realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future — a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about our technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations. Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction. Hotwired to the leading edges of art and technology, *Neuromancer* is a cyberpunk, science fiction masterpiece — a classic that ranks with *1984* and *Brave New World* as one of the twentieth century’s most potent visions of the future.
1984
Rupert of Hentzau [by] Anthony Hope [pseud.] being the sequel to a story by the same writer, entitled The prisoner of Zenda
Fiction, action & adventure, Ruritania (imaginary place), fiction, Children's fiction
With the death of Black Michael of Strelsau and the restoration of King Rudolf to the throne, the troubles of Ruritania may seem to be at an end. But lasting peace cannot be secure when the notorious Rupert of Hentzau is still at large.
1800

Among WRITERS

Among writers, William Gibson ranks 1,014 out of 7,302. Before him are Machado de Assis, Herodian, Juan Antonio Villacañas, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia, Jussi Adler-Olsen, and Noah Gordon. After him are Vasily Zhukovsky, Thomas De Quincey, André Bazin, August Kubizek, Mary Higgins Clark, and Shūsaku Endō.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1948, William Gibson ranks 65. Before him are Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Bille August, Claude Jade, Svetlana Savitskaya, Lluís Llach, and Jerzy Kukuczka. After him are Edmund Kemper, Edwige Fenech, Chris de Burgh, Radomir Antić, Alan Parsons, and Maye Musk.

Others Born in 1948

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In United States

Among people born in United States, William Gibson ranks 1,175 out of 20,380. Before him are Susan Wojcicki (1968), Jackie Robinson (1919), Noah Gordon (1926), Liliʻuokalani (1838), Clyde Drexler (1962), and Alonzo Church (1903). After him are Gene Sharp (1928), Yonatan Netanyahu (1946), Anjelica Huston (1951), George Armitage Miller (1920), Lisa Kudrow (1963), and Mary Higgins Clark (1927).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, William Gibson ranks 115. Before him are Will Durant (1885), Richard Matheson (1926), William Styron (1925), Jean Webster (1876), Edith Wharton (1862), and Noah Gordon (1926). After him are Mary Higgins Clark (1927), Marshall Rosenberg (1934), Sam Shepard (1943), Tess Gerritsen (1953), Zelda Fitzgerald (1900), and Valerie Solanas (1936).

American born Writers

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