Chalker was a member of the Maryland Air National Guard's 135th Special Operations Group, where he was a member of the group information office. He was deployed into Baltimore during the Baltimore riot of 1968.[1]
Chalker was married in 1978 and had two children, David, a game designer, and Samantha, a computer security consultant.
Chalker's hobbies included esoteric audio, travel, and working on science-fiction convention committees. He also had a great interest in ferryboats; at his fiancée's suggestion, their marriage was performed on the Roaring Bull boat, part of the Millersburg Ferry, in the middle of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
Chalker was a three-term treasurer of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Chalker was also the co-author (with Mark Owings[3]) of The Science Fantasy Publishers (third edition during 1991, updated annually), published by Mirage Press, Ltd,[4] a bibliographic guide to genre small press publishers which was a Hugo Award nominee during 1992. The Maryland Young Writers Contest, sponsored by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, was renamed "'The Jack L. Chalker Young Writers Contest" effective April 8, 2006.
Novels
Chalker is best known for his Well World series of novels, but he also wrote many other novels (most, but not all, part of a series, or large novels which were split into 'series' by the publishers), and at least nine short stories.
Many of Chalker's works involve some physical transformation of the main characters. For instance, in the Well World novels, immigrants to the Well World are transformed from their original form to become a member of one of the 1,560 sentient species that inhabit that artificial planet. Another example would be that the Wonderland Gambit series resembles traditional Buddhistjataka-type reincarnation stories set in a science fiction environment. Samantha Chalker announced that Wonderland Gambit might be made into a movie, but supposedly its close resemblance to The Matrix resulted in the project being canceled.[5]
At the time of his death, Chalker left one unfinished novel, Chameleon. He was planning to write another novel, Ripsaw, after Chameleon.
On September 18, 2003, during Hurricane Isabel, Chalker passed out and was taken to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a coronary occlusion. He was later released, but was severely weakened. On December 6, 2004, he was again taken to hospital with breathing problems and disorientation, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and a pneumothorax. Chalker was hospitalized in critical condition, then upgraded to stable condition on December 9, although he did not regain consciousness until December 15. After several more weeks in deteriorating condition and in a persistent vegetative state, with several transfers to different hospitals, Chalker died on February 11, 2005, of kidney failure and sepsis at Bon Secours Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.[6]
^Mitchell, Josh (13 February 2005). "Jack L. Chalker, 60, science-fiction writer". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 2021-06-22. Retrieved January 15, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Chalker, Steven. "Jack's Ashes". Jack Chalker.com News. Archived from the original on February 13, 2006. Retrieved January 15, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
