JCC R.I.P - SF Author Frederik Pohl Has Passed Away

Locus Magazine Obituary

Just came across this while looking for something else on the Locus Magazine site.


SFWA Grandmaster, author, editor, agent, and fan Frederik Pohl, 93, died September 2, 2013.
Frederik George Pohl, Jr. was born November 26, 1919 in New York City. He was one of the earliest SF fans, attending the first SF convention in Philadelphia in 1936, and was one of the founders of the Futurians and the Hydra Club.

I know I have quite a few of his books in my collection. He had a good long life. R.I.P.

 

LAJ, I swear, the only time you come to the JCC is when somebody dies.

 

I lurk quite a bit, and post in a few threads if they interest me (book thread, Doctor Who, for example).

 

Those are boring threads though. Post in the fun threads!

 

I've only read one Pohl novel, Mining The Oort. He's one of those mega popular authors that passed under my radar.

 

The Gateway series was one of my favorites as a kid. He was one of the 20th century giants in that tier just below Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury, etc. All those guys born between 1900-1920. The L. Ron Hubbard generation. Philip Jose Farmer's another one I love. The greats who got their start in the pulp sci fi magazines. I guess they're pretty much just about all dead.

I don't even know how a sci fi author gets his start now. E book self publishing? Like the guy who did "Wool."

 

the first three horsemen of the sequel trilogy are unmasked. the fourth and most terrible is yet to come...

 

There's actually a pretty robust group semi-pro magazines that serve the equivalent function. For instance, Locus and Nebula award winner Aliette de Bodard published her first works in Interzone, and still has the majority of her bibliography in places like Clarkesworld. A number of established authors who started their career after the new millennium talk about early acceptances in places that paid less than 1 cent per word. There's plenty of low quality/low reward venues for young authors.

 

I love you.

 

You make me wish I'd kept up with younger generations of sci fi writers. I don't know much about anything written after the 1980s.