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Isaac Asimov was born Isaak Judah Ozimov, on January 2, 1920, in Petrovichi shtetl, near Smolensk, Russia. He was the oldest of three children. His father, named Judah Ozimov, and his mother, named Anna Rachel Ozimov (nee Berman), were Orthodox Jews. Ozimov family were millers (the name Ozimov comes from the eponymous sort of wheat in Russian). In 1923 Isaac with his parents immigrated to the USA and settled in Brooklyn, New York. There his parents temporarily changed his birthday to September 7, 1919, in order to send him to school a year earlier. Their family name was changed from Ozimov to Asimov.
Asimov was an avid reader before the age of 5. He spoke Yiddish and English at home with his parents and spoke only a few word in Russian. He began his formal education in 1925 in the New York Public School system. From 1930-1932 he was placed in the rapid advance course. In 1935 he graduated from high school, in 1939 received a B.S. and in 1941 he earned his M. Sc. in Chemistry from Columbia University. From 1942-1945 Asimov was a chemist at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard's Naval Air experimental station. After the war ended, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and was transfered to the island of Oahu and was destined to participate in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in July 1946. He narrowly avoided that by receiving an honorable discharge in May 1946. In 1948 he completed his post-graduate studies and earned his Ph. D. in Chemistry. In 1949 he began his teaching career at the Medical School of Boston University, becoming assistant professor in 1951, and associate professor in 1955. In 1958 Asimov became a full-time writer and gave up his teaching duties because his income from his literary works was much greater than his professor's salary. He was fired, but he retained his title and later returned as a lecturer and was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1979. Asimov was considered one of the best lecturers at Boston University.
Young Isaac Asimov was raised as a non-religious person. His parents observed the Orthodox Judaism, but did not force their belief upon young Asimov. He did not have affiliation with a temple, did not have a bar mizvah and called himself an atheist, then used the term "humanist" in his later life. He did not oppose genuine religious convictions in others but opposed superstitious or unfounded beliefs. Asimov defined his intellectual position as a Humanist and rationalist. He opposed the Vietnam war in the 1960s and was a supporter of the Democratic party. He embraced environmental issues, and supported feminism, joking that he wished women to be free "because I hate it when they charge". He was also humorous about many of his memberships in various clubs and foundations. Asimov did not approve exclusionary societies, he left Mensa after he found that many of the members were arrogant. He liked individuality and stayed in groups where he enjoyed giving speeches. As a free thinker, Asimov saw sci-fi literature serving as a pool where ideas and hypotheses are expressed with unrestricted intellectual freedom.
Young Asimov was fascinated with science fiction magazines which were sold at his parent's general store. Around the age of 11 he wrote eight chapters of a fiction about adventures of young boys in a small town. His first publication was "Marooned Off Vesta" in the Amazing Stories magazine in 1939. Asimov shot to fame in 1941 with 'Nightfall', a story of a planet where night comes once every 2049 years. 'Nightfall' has been described as one of the best science fiction stories ever written. Asimov wrote over five hundred literary works. He is credited for introducing the words "positronic", "psychohistory", and "robotics" into the English language. He penned such classics as "I, Robot" and the "Foundation" series, which are considered to be the most impressive of his writings. He also founded "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine", which became a best-selling publication.
Asimov was afraid of needles and the sight of blood. Although he had the highest score on the intelligence test he had the lowest score on the physical-conditioning test. He never learned how to swim or ride a bicycle. The author who described spaceflights suffered from fear of flying. In his entire life he had to fly only twice during his military service. Acrophobia was revealed when he took his date and first love on a roller coaster in 1940, and was terrified. This phobia complicated the logistics and limited the range over which he traveled; it also found reflection in some of his literary works. He avoided traveling long distances. Instead he enjoyed cruise ships like the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, where he occasionally entertained passengers with his science-themed talks. He impressed public with his highly entertaining speeches as well as with his sharp sense of timing; he never looked at the clock, but he spoke for precisely the time allocated. Asimov's sense of time prevented him from ever being late to a meeting. Once he discovered that his parents changed his date of birth, he insisted that the official records of his birthday be corrected to January 2, 1920, the date he personally celebrated throughout his life.
Asimov met Gertrude Blugherman on a blind date on Valentine's Day in February of 1942, they got married in July of the same year. The Asimovs had two children, son David (born in 1951), and daughter Robyn Joan (born in 1955). Asimov had known Janet Opal Jeppson since 1959. She was a psychoanalyst and also a writer of science fiction for children. Correspondence with her convinced Asimov that she was the right kind of person for him. He and Gertrude were separated in 1970, and he moved in with Janet Jappeson almost at once. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1973. That same year he and Janet Jeppson were married at Janet's home by an official of Ethical Culture Society. Asimov had no children by his second marriage.
In 1983 Asimov contracted HIV infection from a tainted blood transfusion received during a triple bypass surgery. He eventually developed AIDS and wanted to go public about his AIDS but his doctors convinced Asimov to remain silent. The specific cause of death was heart and renal failure as complications of AIDS. He died on April 6, 1992, in Boston, Massachussets, and was cremated. His ashes were scattered.
Ten years after Asimov's death, his widow, Janet Jeppson Asimov, revealed that his death was a consequence of an unfortunately contracted AIDS.- Writer
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Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was one of the most famous French novelists of all time. His major work is the "Extraordinary Journeys", a series of more than sixty adventure novels including "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "Around the World in 80 Days", "20.000 Leagues under the Seas" and "The Mysterious Island" which had multiple cinematographic adaptations. Nicknamed "The father of science fiction", he is the second most translated author in the world after Agatha Christie.- Writer
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Writer, born in Bromley, Kent. He was apprenticed to a draper, tried teaching, studied biology in London, then made his mark in journalism and literature. He played a vital part in disseminating the progressive ideas which characterized the first part of the 20th-c. He achieved fame with scientific fantasies such as The Time Machine (1895) and War of the Worlds (1898), and wrote a range of comic social novels which proved highly popular, notably Kipps (1905) and The History of Mr Polly (1910). Both kinds of novel made successful (sometimes classic) early films. A member of the Fabian Society, he was often engaged in public controversy, and wrote several socio-political works dealing with the role of science and the need for world peace, such as The Outline of History (1920) and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind- Writer
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Philip Kindred Dick was born in Chicago in December 1928, along with a twin sister, Jane. Jane died less than eight weeks later, allegedly from an allergy to mother's milk. Dick's parents split up during his childhood, and he moved with his mother to Berkeley, California, where he lived for most of the rest of his life. Dick became a published author in 1952. His first sale was the short story "Roog." His first novel, "Solar Lottery," appeared in 1955. Dick produced an astonishing amount of material during the 1950s and 1960s, writing and selling nearly a hundred short stories and some two dozen or so novels during this period, including "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," "Time Out Of Joint," "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch," and the Hugo-award winning "The Man In The High Castle." A supremely chaotic personal life (Dick was married five times) along with drug experimentation, sidetracked Dick's career in the early 1970s. Dick would later maintain that reports of his drug use had been greatly exaggerated by sensationalistic colleagues. In any event, after a layoff of several years, Dick returned to action in 1974 with the Campbell award-winning novel "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said." Perhaps more importantly, though, this same year Dick would have a profound religious experience that would forever alter his life. Dick's final years were haunted by what he alleged to be a 1974 visitation from God, or at least a God-like being. Dick spent the rest of his life writing copious journals regarding the visitation and his interpretations of the event. At times, Dick seemed to regard it as a divine revelation and, at other times, he believed it to be a sign of extreme schizophrenic behaviour. His final novels all deal in some way with the entity he saw in 1974, especially "Valis," in which the title-character is an extraterrestrial God-like machine that chooses to make contact with a hopelessly schizophrenic, possibly drug-addled and decidedly mixed-up science fiction writer named Philip K. Dick. Despite his award-winning novels and almost universal acclaim from within the science-fiction community, Dick was never especially financially successful as a writer. He worked mainly for low-paying science-fiction publishers and never seemed to see any royalties from his novels after the advance had been paid, no matter how many copies they sold. In fact, one of the reasons for his extreme productivity was that he always seemed to need the advance money from his next story or novel in order to make ends meet. But towards the very end of his life, he achieved a measure of financial stability, partly due to the money he received from the producers of Blade Runner (1982) for the rights to his novel "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" upon which the film was based. Shortly before the film premiered, however, he died of a heart attack at the age of 53. Since his death, several other films have been adapted from his works (incuding Total Recall (1990)) and several unpublished novels have been published posthumously.- Writer
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Ray Bradbury was an American science fiction writer whose works were translated in more than 40 languages and sold millions of copies around the world. Although he created a world of new technical and intellectual ideas, he never obtained a driver's license and had never driven an automobile.
He was born Ray Douglas Bradbury on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois. He was the third son in the family. His father, Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, was a telephone lineman and technician. His mother, Esther Marie Bradbury (nee Moberg), was a Swedish immigrant. His grandfather and great-grandfather were newspaper publishers. In 1934, his family settled in Los Angeles, California. There, young Bradbury often roller-skated through Hollywood, trying to spot celebrities. He attended Los Angeles High School, where he was involved in the drama club and planned to become an actor. He graduated from high school in 1938 and had no more formal education. Instead, he learned from reading works of such writers as Lev Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, among others.
From 1938-1942, he was selling newspapers on the streets of Los Angeles, spending days in the local library and nights at the typewriter. At that time, he published his stories in fanzines. In 1941, he became a paid writer when the pulp magazine Science Stories published his short story, titled "Pendulum", and he was a full-time writer by the end of 1942. His first book - "Dark Carnival" - was a collection of stories published in 1947. That same year, he married Marguerite McClure (1922-2003), whom he met at a bookstore a year earlier. Maggie, as she was affectionately called, was the only woman Bradbury ever dated. They had four daughters and, eventually, eight grandchildren.
Ray Bradbury shot to international fame after publication of "The Martian Chronicles" (1950), a collection of short stories partially based on ideas from ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Then he followed the anti-Utopian writers Yevgeni Zamyatin and Aldous Huxley in his best-known work, "Fahrenheit 451" (1953). The film adaptation (Fahrenheit 451 (1966)) by director François Truffaut, starring Julie Christie, received several nominations. However, Bradbury was not happy with the television adaptation (The Martian Chronicles (1980), starring Rock Hudson) of his story "The Martian Chronicles". His other novels and stories also have been adapted to films and television, as well as for radio, theatre and comic books. Bradbury had written episodes for Alfred Hitchcock's television series, as well as for many other television productions. His total literary output is close to 600 short stories, more than 30 books and numerous poems and plays. He was writing daily.
In 2004, Bradbury received a National Medal of Arts. He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard. An asteroid was named in his honor, "9766 Bradbury", and the Apollo 15 astronauts named an impact crater on the moon "Dandelion Crater", after his novel, "Dandelion Wine". He also received the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from Science Fiction Writers of America, an Emmy Award for his work as a writer on "The Halloween Tree", and many other awards and honors. Ray Bradbury died on June 6, 2012, at the age of 91, in Los Angeles, California.- Writer
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Arthur C. Clarke was born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England in December 16, 1917. In 1936 he moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society. There he started to experiment with astronautic material in the BIS, write the BIS Bulletin and science fiction. During World War II, as a RAF officer, he was in charge of the first radar talk-down equipment, the Ground Controlled Approach, during its experimental trials. His only non-science-fiction novel, Glide Path, is based on this work. After the war, he returned to London and to the BIS, which he presided in 46-47 and 50-53. In 1945 he published the technical paper "Extra-terrestrial Relays" laying down the principles of the satellite com- communication with satellites in geostationary orbits - a speculation realized 25 years later. His invention has brought him numerous honors, such as the 1982 Marconi International Fellowship, a gold medal of the Franklin Institute, the Vikram Sarabhai Professorship of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, the Lindbergh Award and a Fellowship of King's College, London. Today, the geostationary orbit at 36,000 kilometers is named The Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union. The first story Clarke sold professionally was "Rescue Party", written in March 1945 and appearing in Astounding Science in May 1946. He obtained first class honors in Physics and Mathematics at the King's College, London, in 1948.
In 1953 he met an American named Marilyn Torgenson, and married her less than three weeks later. They split in December 1953. As Clarke says, "The marriage was incompatible from the beginning. It was sufficient proof that I wasn't the marrying type, although I think everybody should marry once". Clarke first visited Colombo, Sri Lanka (at the time called Ceylon) in December 1954. In 1954 Clarke wrote to Dr Harry Wexler, then chief of the Scientific Services Division, U.S. Weather Bureau, about satellite applications for weather forecasting. Of these communications, a new branch of meteorology was born, and Dr. Wexler became the driving force in using rockets and satellites for meteorological research and operations. In 1954 Clarke started to give up space for the sea. About the reasons, he said: "I now realise that it was my interest in astronautics that led me to the ocean. Both involve exploration, of course - but that's not the only reason. When the first skin-diving equipment started to appear in the late 1940s, I suddenly realized that here was a cheap and simple way of imitating one of the most magical aspects of spaceflight - weightessness." In the book Profiles of the Future (1962) he looks at the probable shape of tomorrow's world. In this book he states his three Laws: 1."When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." 2."The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible." 3."Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In 1964, he started to work with Stanley Kubrick in a SF (Science Fiction) movie script. After 4 years, he shared an Oscar Academy Award nomination with him for the film version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. He co-broadcasted the Apollo 11 , 12 and 15 missions with Walter Cronkite and Wally Schirra for CBS. In 1985, He published a sequel to 2001 : 2010: Odyssey Two. He worked with Peter Hyams in the movie version of 2010. They work was done using a Kaypro computer and a modem, for Arthur was in Sri Lanka and Peter Hyams in Los Angeles. Their communications turned into the book The Odyssey File - The Making of 2010. His thirteen-part TV series Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World in 1981 and Arthur C. Clarke's World of strange Powers in 1984 has now been screened in many countries. He made part of other TV series about the space, as Walter Cronkite's Universe series in 1981. He has lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka since 1956 and has been doing underwater exploration along that coast and the Great Barrier Reef. So far it has been to over 70 books, almost as many non-fiction, as science fiction. In March 1998, his latest, and probably last, novel: 3001: The Final Odyssey was released.- Writer
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Born in New Jersey and raised in Brooklyn, Richard Burton Matheson first became a published author while still a child, when his stories and poems ran in the "Brooklyn Eagle". A lifelong reader of fantasy tales, he made his professional writing bow in 1950 when his short story "Born of Man and Woman"? appeared in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction"; Matheson turned out a number of highly regarded horror, fantasy and mystery stories throughout that decade. He broke into films in 1956, adapting his novel "The Shrinking Man" for the big-screen The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).- Writer
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Robert Silverberg was born on 15 January 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for Bicentennial Man (1999), Needle in a Timestack (2021) and How It Was When the Past Went Away. He has been married to Karen Haber since 1987. He was previously married to Barbara H. Brown.- Attended University of Cincinnati, Hanover College, Indiana, but didn't obtain a degree. Worked in an office 1924-36, when he left to become writer, proofreader for the "Milwaukee Journal". Also started writing at this time, selling the first of over 300 short stories. Active in both science-fiction and mystery fields, his first SF short appeared in 1941. Won the "Edgar" award for Best First Mystery for "The Fabulous Clipjoint" (1947) from the Mystery Writers Of America. His SF was noted for its humor and wit, and a slickness not common in the '40s & '50s. A chronic respiratory condition forced him from the Midwest to Taos, New Mexico, and then to Tucson, Arizona. Also lived in Los Angeles, submitting scripts to Alfred Hitchcock's television shows.
- Poul Anderson was born on 25 November 1926 in Bristol, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer, known for The High Crusade (1994) and Prisoners of Gravity (1989). He was married to Karen Kruse. He died on 31 July 2001 in Orinda, California, USA.
- Brian Aldiss, author of the classic Helliconia trilogy, and the story on which Steven Spielberg's 2001 film AI: Artificial Intelligence was based, was one of Britain's most accomplished and versatile writers of science fiction. In a lifelong and prolific career, Aldiss, who died aged 92, produced more than 40 novels and almost as many short-story collections. An ambitious and gifted writer, with a flowing and inventive literary style, he did not confine himself to science fiction. As well as his prodigious output of SF, he wrote several bestselling mainstream novels, poetry, drama, two autobiographies and several film scenarios. He also edited a huge number of anthologies and produced a body of criticism that was remarkable for its energy and clarity.
He began publishing his stories in the mid-1950s, a time when SF was heavily dominated by US writers schooled in the markets of commercial magazines. Aldiss's work came as a breath of fresh air to a genre beginning to suffocate in its own orthodoxies. He wrote lively, intelligent prose, shot through with subversive humour, linguistic novelty and human observation. He took for his subjects the full range of modern scientific research. As well as the exact sciences, he also plundered speculative, psychological, sociological and sexological areas of inquiry. One of the most exhilarating aspects of reading Aldiss is the diversity of his imagination.
Born in Dereham, Norfolk, he was the son of Stanley Aldiss, who came from a family that ran a draper's shop, and his wife Elizabeth, known as Dot. Brian spent much of his childhood away from his family, deposited first in Framlingham college preparatory school in Suffolk, which he hated and feared, then later, at the outbreak of the second world war, in West Buckland school in Devon, with which eventually he came to terms. In common with many who went to British boarding schools, Aldiss later said that his army experiences, crammed into sweltering troopships and trains, sleeping rough in slit trenches, and so on, were nothing compared to what he had grown up with. From 1943 he served in the Royal Corps of Signals and was shipped out to India. From there he joined the "Forgotten" 14th Army in Burma. He rose to the rank of corporal, which he described as being not as important as a general. It was probably more suited to his individualistic nature, a man who throughout his life was to lead by example, not by command. After the fall of Burma, Aldiss began training for the land assault on the Japanese mainland, but was among the many thousands of young soldiers whose lives, he was later convinced, were saved by the Japanese surrender following the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
When the second world war was over he continued to serve in the far east, particularly on Sumatra, an island of exotic terrain and customs, an experience that influenced much of his work, sometimes explicitly. In the 70s, Aldiss's far east sojourn informed his three Horatio Stubbs novels, which were all bestsellers: The Hand-Reared Boy (1970), A Soldier Erect (1971) and A Rude Awakening (1978). Strong autobiographical themes also ran through his best general fiction, such as Life in the West (1980) and Forgotten Life (1988), and much of his early SF was set in hot climates or jungly environments, notably Non-Stop (1958), The Male Response (1961) and Hothouse (1962).
After demobilisation in 1947, Aldiss settled in Oxford and began work as a bookshop assistant. Under the pseudonym Peter Pica, he contributed a series of fictional sketches to the trade magazine The Bookseller, comically and pointedly describing the life of a bookshop assistant in a provincial town. These became enormously popular with the readership, among whom was Sir Geoffrey Faber, chairman of the publisher of that name.
In this way Aldiss's first book, a collection of the sketches made up into a novel, found its publisher. The Brightfount Diaries (1955) was successful enough to allow him to quit the bookshop, which by then had become odious to him. He was to remain a Faber author for 15 years. From 1957 until 1970 he was in his spare time the literary editor of the Oxford Mail.
His first SF novel was Non-Stop, about a multigeneration spaceship on a long journey between the stars. This familiar generic material gave free rein to his exuberant imagination, producing a story that not only took on the American genre on its own terms, but which introduced unmistakably British characters who were often stricken with melancholy, mischief and bursts of randiness. Non-Stop is still regarded in the SF world as a classic of its kind.
In 1959, Aldiss received his first international recognition, a special Hugo award from the World Science Fiction Society for "most promising new author of the year" - no comparable Hugo has been awarded since. A few years later, he received a second Hugo, this one for Hothouse. These were what he called his SF years. Throughout the 60s he wrote a number of novels and short stories that were to cement his reputation.
Prime among them was Greybeard (1964), possibly his greatest SF novel: it depicts a world of almost universal sterility, where elderly, childless survivors journey downstream along the Thames in hope of finding signs of new life. Written against the failure of his first marriage, while he was separated from his young children, this novel revealed that ebullience and exotica were not the only weapons in Aldiss's literary armoury, but that he could deal with important tragic themes.
He continued to write traditional SF after that period, but in 1970 he published the first of the Horatio Stubbs novels. The second of them, A Soldier Erect, is a brilliant evocation of the far east war, and one of the few novels to be written about the Burma campaign. His career broadened. The SF became more demanding and experimental: Barefoot in the Head (1969), Frankenstein Unbound (1973) and The Malacia Tapestry (1976), a fantasy partly inspired by the drawings of the 18th-century Italian artists Tiepolo and Maggiotto, a love story set in a city where time has ceased to flow.
In the early 80s, Aldiss embarked on his longest and most sustained work, the Helliconia trilogy: Helliconia Spring (1982), Summer (1983) and Winter (1985). This depiction of a world that circles a double star, where an orbital Great Year lasts long enough for cultures to emerge, prosper and fail, is a subtle, deeply researched and intellectually rigorous work. The Helliconia trilogy has earned its status as a modern classic of SF.
To his friends, Aldiss was often the best of company, a generous man with a well-furnished mind who was amused not only by the follies of the world at large but also by his own. Both his autobiographies, Bury My Heart at WH Smith's (1990) and The Twinkling of an Eye (1998), the former about his professional life, the latter his personal life, are full of honest and sometimes surprising self-appraisals. You sensed he was a man who never lost his curiosity, or his sense of humour. When Aldiss was on his most amusing form, a long evening in a Munich bierkeller could be memorably entertaining, as I discovered in 1987.
More seriously, Aldiss's commitment to literature, and in particular to SF literature, was fierce. In the mid-60s he was instrumental in obtaining a crucial Arts Council grant for New Worlds, the pioneering British SF magazine. All his working life he did much behind the scenes to encourage, support and promote younger writers. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Literary Society in 1989, and was appointed OBE in 2005. He bore these awards, and many others, with pride.
As well as the autobiographies, Aldiss produced a large number of non-fiction works. The first was a travel book, Cities and Stones (1965), a journey through the former Yugoslavia, a country he loved. Most of the rest were arguments about or critical histories of SF, but for all his industrious and often ingenious defence of the stuff in which he excelled, SF remained marginalised. It was an argument he never really won.
His history of the genre, Billion Year Spree, appeared in 1973, with a recast version, Trillion Year Spree, in collaboration with David Wingrove, in 1986. Other books on SF art were published. Late in his career, Aldiss sold the film rights to one of his short stories: Supertoys Last All Summer Long (1969). Stanley Kubrick, fitful genius, was still trying to shape a script to his satisfaction when he died in 1999; Steven Spielberg took over the project, and the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) appeared two years later.
Aldiss's astonishingly prolific writing continued until the end of his life. When he was 75 he was awarded the title of Grandmaster by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, obviously because of his past work, but also to celebrate the fact that he would not give up. After that he wrote more novels, two collections of poetry, and An Exile on Planet Earth (2012), a retrospective of his critical essays published by the Bodleian Library. He described Finches of Mars (2012) as his last SF novel. At some point in his few moments of spare time, he also executed some 90 original paintings - these were exhibited at the Jam Factory gallery in Oxford in 2010.
Aldiss was by a long chalk the premier British science fiction writer - that he was also one of the most versatile writers of any kind was a fact that only a comparatively few readers outside the SF field came to discover. His work is still, in this sense, to be discovered.
His first marriage, to Olive Fortescue in 1948, ended in divorce in 1965, after which he married Margaret Manson. She died in 1997. Aldiss was survived by his partner, Alison Soskice, and four children: Clive and Wendy from his first marriage, and Timothy and Charlotte from his second. - Writer
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Ursula K. Le Guin was born on 21 October 1929 in Berkeley, California, USA. She was a writer, known for Tales from Earthsea (2006), The Lathe of Heaven (1980) and The Telling. She was married to Charles A. Le Guin. She died on 22 January 2018 in Portland, Oregon, USA.- Writer
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Frederik Pohl was born on 26 November 1919 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Romulus, Il tunnel sotto il mondo (1969) and Tales of Tomorrow (1951). He was married to Elizabeth Anne Hull, Carol M. Ulf Stanton, Judith Merril, Dorothy LesTina and Leslie Perri. He died on 2 September 2013 in Palatine, Illinois, USA.- Writer
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At the age of 17, Heinlein graduated from Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He spent one year at the University of Missouri before he entered the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, from which he graduated as the 20th best among the 243 cadets. He spent five years in the Pacific Ocean until he had to retire because of tuberculosis in 1934. After his retirement he had different kinds of jobs: silver mining in Colorado, land-agent, political speech-writer and a failed attempt to become an elected politician. He also married his first wife, Leslyn McDonald.
His first story "Lifeline" was written as an entry for a magazine contest offering $50 for the best sf story by a new writer, but he sold it instead for $70 to the magazine "Astounding Stories" where it was published in August 1939. During WWII he worked as a research engineer for the navy in Philadelphia but he also wrote 25 novels and short stories. He also met his second wife Virginia Gerstenfeld whom he married in 1948. Not much is known about his personal life. He once said that he wrote seven days a week, six months a year. The other six months he traveled or was lazy. At the end of the 1960s his health became weaker and he had to undergo several treatments. His health improved after a major operation in 1982 but his novel, "To Sail Beyond the Sunset," published in 1987, became his last.- John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was born in 1903. After trying many jobs including farming and law, he started writing short stories for publication in 1925. He did well in America in the 1930s, writing under various pen names and graduated to churning out the staple written diet of every red blooded American male - the detective story. He was in both the Civil Service and the army during the war and returned to writing stories for the American market in 1946, concentrating on books that were released under the blanket theme of science-fiction. His books rarely dealt with the blam-blam type of space story but concentrated more on the issues surrounding his characters; his habit of often writing in the first person lent his stories a strong, personal feeling and his books quickly topped the best seller's lists.
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J.G. Ballard was born on 15 November 1930 in Shanghai, China. He was a writer and actor, known for Empire of the Sun (1987), High-Rise (2015) and Crash (1996). He was married to Helen Mary Matthews. He died on 19 April 2009 in London, England, UK.- Stanislaw Lem was a visionary Polish author known for Solaris (1972).
He was born on September 12, 1921, in Lwów, Poland. His father, Samuel Lem, was a wealthy laryngologist who served in the Austrian army. His mother, Sabina Woller, was a homemaker. Although he was born into a Polish-Jewish family, Lem was raised a Catholic and later became an atheist. He graduated from the Lwów Gymnazium in 1939, then studied medicine at the Lvov Medical Institute in 1940-1941. During WWII, he survived the Nazi occupation of Lwów and worked as a mechanic and welder for a German firm until 1944.
After World War II Lem escaped from the Soviet occupation of Germany and moved to Krakow, Poland, as a repatriate. There he completed his medical studies at Jagellonian University, without taking the doctor's degree. He worked at the Konserwatorium Naukoznawcze as a research assistant for psychologist Dr. Choynowski. From 1946-1949 Lem was involved in medical research in psychology, which became a turning point in his life. He started writing poetry and science fiction in 1946, but his first serious novel, "Hospital of the Transfiguration", was suppressed by the Polish government for eight years. It was released only in 1956, when freedom of speech was earned after the "Polish October" popular uprising.
Lem quit medicine in 1949, because he did not want to be drafted into the army. He married a doctor instead of being one. In 1949 he became a professional writer and continued creating his increasingly unusual novels: "The Investigation", "Eden", "Return from the Stars". The 1960s and 1970s were the most productive for Lem. At that time he wrote 'Solaris', 'The Invincible', 'The Cyberiad', 'His Master's Voice', 'The Star Diaries', 'The Futurological Congress', and 'Tales of Pirx the Pilot'. His gift of a visionary materialized in 'Summa Technologiae' (Sum of Technologies, 1964), which tackled problems of virtual reality. Lem showed his talent for premonition in "Katar" (1975), which predicted international terrorism, and in "Observations on the Spot"' (1982), which showed absurdity of a conflict between two civilizations.
His novel 'Solaris' was adapted into eponymous films twice. First came the Russian-made film adaptation by director Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972, starring Donatas Banionis and Natalya Bondarchuk. Lem spent six months working with Tarkovsky in Moscow, but their collaboration ended in a bitter conflict over the changes and additions to the original story. After seeing edited parts of the 1972 film, Lem said of Tarkovsky: "Instead of focusing on deeper moral questions related to frontiers of human knowledge, he made a drama-type 'Crime and Punishment' in space, by making up unnecessary characters of parents and relatives, then adding a hut on an island." "Tarkovsky was a genius, but he was moving in the opposite direction from my book", also said Lem. Upon his doctor's advice Lem did not want to see the 2002 remake by director Steven Soderbergh, starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone.
"Solaris" (1961) is arguably the best known work of Lem's works. It deals with the problem of human existence in the world of the unknown. It also shows the inevitability of misunderstandings in human contacts with other worlds. Planet Solaris is inhabited by a single Plasma Ocean organism with the eerie ability to materialize human thoughts. When astronauts become more aggressive in forcing contact with Solaris, it confronts them with pushing the buttons of their most painful thoughts by recreating their dead wives and relatives, and virtually bringing the dead back to life in front of their eyes. Obsolete biological human impulses are shown in stark contrast with the magnitude of the ocean-size organism. At some point humans become an irrational liability to their machine partner, the spaceship. Lem's imagination and talent for creation of alternative reality challenges the limits of human knowledge.
"Past is more perfect than future, which makes me sad," said Lem. Although some of his predictions came true, he expressed his disappointment about the failure of many positive prognosis that were made during the 1960s and 1970s. He died on March 27, 2006, in Kraków, and was laid to rest in the Salwatorski cemetery in Kraków, Poland. His books sold over 27 million copies in 41 languages. - Jack Vance is best known for his fantasy and science fiction. He won the Hugo award (given by the World Science Fiction Society) for *The Dragon Masters* (1963); both Hugo and Nebula (given by Science Fiction Writers of America) for *The Last Castle* (1966); and the World Fantasy Award for *Lyonesse: Madouc* (1990).
He has also written eleven "straight" murder mysteries under his full name John Holbrook Vance - one of which, *Bad Ronald* (1955), has been filmed both in English and in French - and four under the house pseudonym Ellery Queen.
Between 1998 and 2005, a group of fans around the world compiled the *Vance Integral Edition* of his written fiction, correcting errors that have crept in as well as undoing the butchery of editors. The edition comprises 44 volumes, of which 22 were published in 2003 and the remainder in 2005. - Phil Klass was born in London in 1920. His family emmigrated to the US during the '20s. Phil grew up in New York City. He took to writing fiction during the lengthy commute to his day job at Bell Labs in New Jersey. Phil helped many young writers. 'Daniel Keyes', who wrote "Flowers for Algernon" (Charly (1968)), was a friend of Phil's. Daniel told Phil that an editor wanted him to change the ending to a happy ending and Phil encouraged him not to! Under the pseudonum William Tenn, he sold about 60 SF stories in about 20 years, including "On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi." Phil was an English professor at Penn State for over 20 years. One of his students was David Morrell, who went on to write First Blood (1982). Phil has retired as a professor and lives in the Pittsburgh area. Phil's nephew is screenwriter David Klass and his nieces are Perri Klass and Judy Klass.
- Edward Hamilton Waldo was an American science fiction writer who published under the legal name Theodore Sturgeon - he changed his name following his mother's divorce. He was born on Staten Island, New York and sold his first short story in 1938. He is perhaps best known for the novel 'More Than Human' (1953) and his short horror story, 'IT', which has appeared in countless anthologies over the years. For the screen, Sturgeon contributed to TV projects including Tales of Tomorrow (1951), The Invaders (1967), Star Trek (1966) and The Twilight Zone (1985).
His short fiction appeared in publications such as 'Astounding Science Fiction', 'Unknown', Argosy', and 'Ellery Queen'. He is known to have directly influenced authors like Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and is also praised by the Grand Master, Stephen King. - Writer
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George R.R. Martin is an American novelist and short-story writer in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres, a screenwriter, and television producer. He is known for his international bestselling series of epic fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, which was later adapted into the HBO dramatic series Game of Thrones (2011).
Martin serves as the series' co-executive producer, and also scripted four episodes of the series. In 2005, Lev Grossman of Time called Martin "the American Tolkien".- Connie Willis was born on 31 December 1945 in Denver, Colorado, USA. She is a writer, known for Snow Wonder (2005), Prisoners of Gravity (1989) and Dreams with Sharp Teeth (2008).
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born on 11 November 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Back to School (1986), Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) and General Electric Theater (1953). He was married to Jill Krementz and Jane Marie Cox. He died on 11 April 2007 in New York City, New York, USA.- Robert Sheckley was born on 16 July 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The 10th Victim (1965), The Prize of Peril (1983) and Freejack (1992). He was married to Gail Dana, Abby Schulman, Ziva Miri Kwitney, Barbara Scadron and Jay Rothbell. He died on 9 December 2005 in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA.
- Born the son of an Opium Agent in Bengal, Eric Blair was educated in England (Eton 1921). The joined the British Imperial Police in Burma, serving until 1927. He then travelled around England and Europe, doing various odd jobs to support his writing. By 1935 he had adopted the 'pen-name' of 'George Orwell' and had written his first novels. He married in 1936. In 1937, he and his wife fought against the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He produced some 3000 pages of essays and newspaper articles as well as several books and programs for the BBC.
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Robert J. Sawyer has written for ABC, the CBC, CTV, Copperheart, Harmony Gold, Nelvana, Shaftesbury, and gaming giant Ubisoft, among others. He is a member of both the WGA and the WGC, and is past president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name, and he was one of the scriptwriters for that series.
His writing credits include produced prime-time US network TV drama, two commissioned feature-film screenplays, commissioned series pilots and series bibles, and he wrote the series-finale episode for the popular Star Trek Continues online film series.
Rob has worked creatively with major industry figures including Ron Bass, Brannon Braga, Fred Fuchs, Vince Gerardis, Scott M. Gimple, David S. Goyer, Michael Hirsh, Vincenzo Natali, Karl Schaefer, William Shatner, and Robert Halmi, Sr.
Nineteen of Rob's bestselling novels have been optioned for film or television production. He has won all three of the world's top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
Rob has a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree from Canada's top television school, the School of Radio and Television Arts (now known as the RTA School of Media) at Ryerson University, Toronto, awarded 1982. He also served as an instructor-demonstrator in television studio production techniques at Ryerson's School of Radio and Television Arts, 1982-1983.- Writer
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Alfred Bester was born on 18 December 1913 in New York City, New York, USA. Alfred was a writer, known for The Stars My Destination, The Juliet and Fireside Theatre (1949). Alfred was married to Rolly Bester. Alfred died on 30 September 1987 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA.- Additional Crew
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Stephen Baxter is known for Space Island One (1998), Invasion Earth (1998) and Forum for Philosophy Podcast (2008).- Howard Fast was born on 11 November 1914 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Spartacus (1960), The Lives of Benjamin Franklin (1974) and Mirage (1965). He was married to Mercedes O'Connor and Bette Cohen. He died on 12 March 2003 in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, USA.
- Mike Resnick was born on 5 March 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer, known for Don't Take the Name of God in Vain (1999), Finding the Future: A Science Fiction Conversation (2004) and 50th Anniversary Brunch Noreascon Three Videotape (1989). He was married to Carol L. Cain. He died on 9 January 2020 in the USA.
- Harry Harrison was born on 12 March 1925 in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. He was a writer, known for Soylent Green (1973), Soylent Green and Bill the Galactic Hero (2014). He was married to Joan Merkler. He died on 15 August 2012 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK.
- John Varley was born in 1947 in Austin, Texas and later on won a National Merit Scholarship to Michigan State University. He originally had plans to be a scientist, but he eventually dropped out. After taking a variety of odd jobs, he decided to become a science fiction writer, and his first sale, "Picnic on Nearside," appeared in the August 1974 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He is now among the most respected science fiction authors in existence. He rose to fame in the 70s and 80s, winning three Hugos and two Nebulas and writing countless novels and short stories. His work is among the most respected there is in the field, yet during the late 80s and most of the 90s he fell into a lull, and produced little aside from the novel The Golden Globes (1992) and Steel Beach (1998). During this period, he worked in Hollywood, and had an office at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio gate. He says that he "made a lot of money" during this period, but he grew disenchanted with Hollywood, and said, "Only one movie resulted from this time, and it was bad: Millennium (1989)."
Varley reportedly takes the entire blame for this. In the early years of the new millennium, he seems to be returning, with new short stories and new and upcoming novels. His latest novel, Red Thunder (2003), was recently published, and another, Mammoth, is due out soon. - Cordwainer Smith was born on 11 July 1913 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was a writer, known for Rediscovery: The Lives of Cordwainer Smith (2023) and El crimen y la gloria del comandante Suzdal (2009). He was married to Genevieve Collins and Margaret Snow. He died on 6 August 1966 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
- Born in New York on 7 May 1931; Wolf studied at Texas A&M for a few years before leaving to fight in the Korean War. On his return he finished his degree at the University of Houston. He worked as the editor of the professional journal Plant Engineering and was instrumental in inventing the machine that cooks Pringles potato chips. He pursued his own writing during his editorial tenure at Plant Engineering, taking a few years before one of his books gained wider notice in the science fiction community. Wolfe went on to write over 30 novels, with his best best-known work, The Book of The New Sun, spanning 1980-1983. Wolfe is survived by his daughters Madeleine, Teri and son, Matthew and 3 granddaughters, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Alison.
- Christopher Priest was born on 14 July 1943 in Cheadle, Cheshire, England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Prestige (2006), Futouristic and One Million Times (2017). He was married to Leigh Kennedy and Lisa Tuttle. He died on 2 February 2024 in England.
- Edmund Cooper was born on 30 April 1926 in Cheshire, England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Invisible Boy (1957), Sial IV (1969) and Racconti di fantascienza (1978). He died on 11 March 1982.
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Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Roslyn, New York. His father was a journalist and encouraged him to write and to type. Michael gave up studying English at Harvard University, having become disillusioned with the teaching standards--the final straw came when he submitted an essay by George Orwell that was given a "B-." After giving up English and spending a year in Europe, Michael returned to Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Havard Medical School to train as a doctor. Several times, he was persuaded not to quit the course but did so after qualifying in 1969.
During his medical-student days, he wrote novels secretly mainly under the pseudonym of John Lange in reference to his almost 6ft 9 height. (Lange in German means long) One novel, "A Case of Need," written under the pseudonym Jeffery Hudson, (Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous 17th century dwarf) contained references to people at Harvard Medical School, but he couldn't hide his identity when the novel won an award that had to be collected in person. After giving up medicine, Michael moved to Hollywood, California, in the early 1970s and began directing movies based on his books, his first big break being Westworld (1973).- James Tiptree, Jr., was the pseudonym used by Alice Sheldon. Born Alice Bradly in 1915, she travelled extensively around the world with her parents (a travel writer and an explorer). She married in 1934, but was divorced in 1941. At the start of WWII, she joined the Army, and was later assigned to Army Air Force Intelligence. She was to remain involved with US Intelligence for most of her life.
In 1945 she met and married Huntingdon Sheldon, a fellow member of the AAFI. After the end of the 2nd World War, they moved to Virginia, where they were both involved with the then-fledgling Central Intelligence Agency. Alice left the CIA in 1956, and enrolled in George Washington University. She received her doctorate in experimental psychology in 1967.
After completing her degree, Sheldon found herself at a loss as to what to do. She'd long been interested in writing science fiction, but never had the time. Because of her ties to the US intelligence division, she knew she could not write using her real name. She came up with her famous pen name after seeing the name Tiptree on a jar of marmalade.
Sheldon/Tiptree burst onto the SF scene with the story "Birth of a Salesman." She was quite prolific for several years, and her stories were widely praised. Many of her works explored the confusion of gender roles and other sexual issues. Her short story, "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" won the 1973 Hugo Award for best short story.
In her later years, Sheldon suffered many illnesses, and spent most of her time caring for her ailing husband. In 1987, she killed her husband, and then took her own life. In 1991, the James Tiptree, Jr. award was founded. This award is given for excellence in exploring gender roles in science fiction and fantasy fiction. - Born in 1937, Roger Zelazny left his strongest mark in the Science Fiction Literature of the '60s and '70s. His first story was published in 1962, and he went on to publish more than 150 short stories and 50 books. His best works include novels "Lord of Light" (1967), "This Immortal" (1966), "Creatures of Light and Darkness" (1969), and the Amber series of novels, as well as many excellent short stories and collections. Zelazny was considered the leader of the Science Fiction's "New Wave" movement. Emphasising on the psychology of his characters, as well as on the elaborateness of ideas and literary settings, his writings won acclaim by both the literary critics and the readers. Zelazny's prose is often known to blur the distinction between Science Fiction and fantasy. Some of his best known novels were based on mythology of various cultures. His Lord of Light was based on the Hindu pantehon. Egyption gods and goddesses populated his Creatures of Light and Darkness, while his Eye of Cat featured elements of Navajo religion and folklore. He has won many awards for his work, including 6 Hugos, which are awarded by science fiction fans, and two Nebulas, awarded by Science Fiction Writers of America. Zelazny, who had cancer for several months, died Wednesday June 14th 1995 at St. Vincent Hospital of kidney failure associated with the cancer.
- Thomas M. Disch was born on 2 February 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He was a writer, known for The Brave Little Toaster (1987), Miami Vice (1984) and Come to Venus Melancholy (1995). He died on 4 July 2008 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Clifford D. Simak was born on 3 August 1904 in Millville, Wisconsin, USA. He was a writer, known for The Outer Limits (1963), Way Station and Out of This World (1962). He was married to Agnes Kuchenberg. He died on 24 April 1988 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
- Edmond Hamilton began his writing career in the early days of pulp science fiction. His first story, "The Monster of Marmuth", appeared in Weird Tales, and was very reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft. Soon, though, his style changed, and he focused on the "super-science" stories popularized by E. E. Smith and John Campbell. In 1940, pulp editor Leo Marguiles and Hamilton created the Captain Future character, who was the lead character in a short running (17 issues) self-titled magazine. The character would later resurface as an anime character.
Unlike many of the pioneers of pulp sci-fi, Hamilton continued to write stories well into the 1970s. His later work began to focus on more introspective topics, and are some of his best. He also became a comic book writer, scripting many issues of "Superman" comics. While not well known today, Hamilton's work was a definite influence on many writers and filmmakers today. His influences can be seen in "Star Trek", "Star Wars", and "Babylon 5". - John Stewart "Jack" Williamson was a prolific fiction writer of novels and short stories in the science-fiction genre. He replaced Robert A. Heinlein as the "Dean of Science Fiction" in 1988.
His novel "Darker Than You Think" (1948) is perhaps his best known and has since been included in the Gollancz SF and Fantasy Masterworks collection that also includes Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and Richard Matheson's 1954 masterpiece "I Am Legend". "Darker Than You Think" is the tale of an ongoing war between humankind and werewolves, that latter living hidden amongst the former.
Jack Williamson sadly passed away in 2006, but will be remembered as one of the best science-fiction authors of all time. - Writer
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Lester Del Rey was born in Clydesdale, Minnesota. His mother died shortly after his birth, leaving the boy and his older sister in the care of their father. Sensing that the children should have a mother, his father hired a woman to care for the children, and later married her. Unfortunately, the stepmother was unable to form an attachment to young Lester.
Lester was a precocious reader, and finished school at the age of 16; receiving a certificate, but not formally graduating. In 1931, he moved to Washington D.C. to attend George Washington University on a scholarship, although he left after taking only science classes. For two years he supported himself through odd jobs and writing poetry. He sold 20 poems to various magazines before deciding that he was not a poet.
He wrote his first published story on a dare from a friend, after Del Rey had criticized the work of a professional writer. In one day he wrote "The Faithful" and submitted it to a magazine. Eight days later he received a check from the magazine, and this started him on his professional writing career.
In 1951 he began writing a series for young readers, the first of these being "A Pirate Flag from Monterey". His book, "Marooned on Mars", received the first Boys' Clubs of America Science Fiction Award in 1953.
He was a regular editor for several magazines, including Fantasy Fiction and Science Fiction Adventures, and later for the publisher Ballantine Books. It was at Ballantine that he helped to launch the subdivision publisher, Del Rey Books, with the aid of his third wife, Judy-Lynn del Rey.- Nelson Bond was born on 23 November 1908 in Scranton, New Jersey, USA. He was a writer, known for Lights Out (1946), Tales of Tomorrow (1951) and Thriller (1960). He was married to Betty Folsom. He died on 4 November 2006 in Roanoke, Virginia, USA.
- Stanley G. Weinbaum was born on 4 April 1902 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was a writer, known for Tales of Tomorrow (1951), She Devil (1957) and Science Fiction Theatre (1955). He was married to Margaret Hawtof Kay. He died on 14 December 1935 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
- Fritz Leiber Jr. was born on 24 December 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Night of the Eagle (1962), A Pail of Air and Game for Motel Room. He was married to Margo Skinner and Jonquil Stephens. He died on 5 September 1992 in San Francisco, California, USA.
- Murray Leinster was born on 16 June 1896 in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. He was a writer, known for Murder Will Out (1930), Lights Out (1946) and The Purple Cipher (1920). He was married to Mary Mandola. He died on 8 June 1975 in Gloucester, Virginia, USA.
- Greg was born in San Diego on August 20th, 1951, to Wilma M. and Dale F. Bear. He sold his first short story at the age of fifteen to the magazine Famous Science Fiction and his first novel, Hegira, appeared in 1979. One of Bear's most famous stories is "Blood Music", which won the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. Another short story, "Dead Run", was adapted by Alan Brennert for the second Twilight Zone television show. He worked as a freelance journalist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where he covered all the Voyager planetary encounters for the San Diego Union, as a film commentator for the Los Angeles Times, as a book reviewer for the San Diego Union Book Review supplement, as a bookseller and as lecturer for the San Diego City Schools. He was a founding member of ASFA, the Association of Science Fiction Artists. In the 1980s, Bear served on the Citizens Advisory Council on National Space Policy and as science and speculations advisor for the pilot episode of the Amblin/Universal TV production _Earth 2 (1994) (TV)_. Married to Astrid Anderson (daughter of Poul Anderson) in 1983. They have a son, Erik (born September 1986) and a daughter, Alexandra (born January 1990). His science fiction often draws on his knowledge of biology and anthropology.
- Gregory Benford was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1941. He received a B.S. from the University of Oklahoma, and attended the University of California, San Diego, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1967. He spent the next four years at the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow and research physicist. In 1971 he joined University of California, Irvine, as a teacher, becoming a full professor of physics in 1979. Benford was always a fan of science fiction and his first published story, "Stand In" (1965), won second place in a contest at The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His first novel, Deeper Than the Darkness (1970), dealt with alien contact, but the novel which established his reputation was Timescape (1980), winner of both a Nebula and a Campbell Memorial Award. Other novels include thrillers Artifact (1985), Chiller (as by Sterling Blake, 1993), Cosm (1998), and Eater (2000). Benford has been a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University and MIT, and served as an advisor to the Department of Energy, NASA, and the White House Council on Space Policy. In 1989, he was host and scriptwriter for the television series, "A Galactic Odyssey", which described physics and astronomy from the perspective of the galaxy's evolution, an eight-part series produced for an international audience by Japan National Broadcasting.
In 1995 he received the Lord Prize for achievements in the sciences. His research encompasses both theory and experiments in the fields of astrophysics and plasma physics. He worked on long-term marking of the major U.S. nuclear waste site (how do you warn people 10,000 years from now that the land used for radioactive waste is dangerous?), helped design the message to fly on the 1998 Cassini mission to Saturn, and participated in the planning and writing of text for the CD placed aboard the 1999 Russian Mars lander. He was Guest of Honor at the 1999 Worldcon in Australia. - Kim Stanley Robinson was born on 23 March 1952 in Waukegan, Illinois, USA. He has been married to Lisa Howland Nowell since 1982. They have two children.