Author William Gibson, regarded as the Godfather of “cyberpunk” was born on March 17, 1948.

Gibson coined the term “cyberspace” in his 1982 short story “Burning Chrome.” The well-regarded author is best known for his Sprawl series, which began with the novel Neuromancer.

Gary Westfahl writes in his Modern Masters of Science Fiction series book William Gibson:

In the early 1980s Gibson amazed science fiction readers and critics with his shift away from space opera into the virtual worlds of information science; heroes that were scruffy, streetwise outsiders struggling to stay alive in societies dominated by multinational corporations; and a pyrotechnic prose style that combined extravagantly metaphorical language with an unprecedented “hyperspecificity” in describing old and new technologies.

Read a Q&A with author Gary Westfahl.