thumb|right|Schmitz's "The Second Night of Summer", part of his "Agent of Vega" series, was the cover story in the third issue of [[Galaxy Science Fiction in 1950]]
thumb|right|Schmitz's novelette "Captives of the Thieve-Star" was the cover story in the May 1951 issue of [[Planet Stories]]
thumb|right|The first installment of Schmitz's novella "The Ties of Earth" took the cover of the November 1955 issue of [[Galaxy Science Fiction]]
thumb|right|Schmitz's novella "Left Hand, Right Hand" was the cover story on the November 1962 issue of [[Amazing Stories]]
thumb|right|Schmitz's novella "Beacon to Elsewhere" took the cover of the April 1963 issue of [[Amazing Stories]]
James Henry Schmitz (October 15, 1911 – April 18, 1981) was a German-American science fiction writer.
Early life
Schmitz was born in Hamburg, Germany to American parents and grew up speaking both English and German. The family spent World War I in the United States, then returned to Germany.
Education and early career
Schmitz traveled to Chicago in 1930 to go to business school, then switched to a correspondence course in journalism. Unable to find a job because of the Great Depression, he returned to Germany to work with his father's company. Schmitz lived in various German cities, where he worked for the International Harvester Company,
Writing career
Schmitz wrote mostly short stories, which sold chiefly to Galaxy Science Fiction and Astounding Science-Fiction (which later became Analog Science Fiction and Fact). Gale Biography in Context called him "a craftsmanlike writer who was a steady contributor to science fiction magazines for over 20 years."
His first published story was "Greenface", published in August 1943 in Unknown.
His story "Second Night of Summer", published in Galaxy Science Fiction in December 1950, features the first instance of the term "hive mind" in science fiction.
Most of his works are part of the "Hub" series and feature characters with telepathy. However, the novel that "is usually thought of as Schmitz's best work"
In an essay in the anthology The Good Old Stuff (1998), Dozois laments that the book Agent of Vega is "long out-of-print, alas, but one which – if you can find it – delivers as pure a jolt of Widescreen Space Opera Sense of wonder as can be found anywhere." However, the website Free Speculative Fiction Online freely offers Agent of Vega, along with several of Schmitz's other stories, including "Greenface", "Balanced Ecology", "Lion Loose", "Goblin Night", and many more.
Schmitz wrote the introduction to the concordance The Universes of E. E. Smith.
Legacy
Gardner Dozois has said, in prefacing the Schmitz tale "The Second Night of Summer", in which humans on the planet Noorhut face an attack from aliens and are, unbeknownst to themselves, saved by the actions of a single woman with psi powers, Granny Wannattel, with the sole help of a friendly alien she calls her pony: