My Huffington Post: Too Freakish a Place - Ray Palmer and the Invention of "Psi-Fi"

Ray Palmer was an American original. Born in Milwaukee in 1910, he was struck by a milk truck at age seven, shattering his back and forcing him to be bedridden for much of his childhood and crippled for life (he remained a hunchback). After seeing the first issue of Hugo Gernsback's landmark science fiction pulp magazine Amazing Stories, in 1926, he became hooked on science fiction. An early enthusiast (it was then called "scientifiction" or stf), Palmer co-edited the world's first fanzine, The Comet, with its first issue in 1930. When fans honored Hugo Gernsback as the "Father of Science Fiction" at the Worldcon--or more formally The World Science Fiction Convention--in 1952, Ray Palmer also was honored as the "Son of Science Fiction."

 to read the full blog please go to the Huffington Post.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hold the Starships -- an Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson on Mars Settlement, Socialists in Space, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Immortality, and the Purpose of Science Fiction

Image
  Kim Stanley Robinson, 2017, photo by Gage Skidmore, Wikicommons Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the most respected contemporary sf writers. While his Mars trilogy,  completed in 1992, inspired Mars settlement enthusiasts, his more recent work, often depicting the ramifications of global warming, is part of the “cli-fi” (climate fiction) movement. I conversed with him via email in spring 2019, while researching Star Settlers: The Billionaires, Geniuses, and Crazed Visionaries Out to Conquer the Universe (Pegasus Books, forthcoming August, 2020). My main interest was in his 2015 novel Aurora which describes a failed mission to settle a distant star system, leading the protagonist to conclude that star settling was ill-advised. As it turns out, KSR has never been set on conquering the universe.    Does Aurora fairly sum up your views on the limitations of interstellar travel for humanity? Or are you describing just one possible outcome of the effort to settle a "Goldilo
Read more

Days of Reckoning Press

Image
I once was the editor of a “zine” that made it through at least four issues with the spiffy title The Days of Reckoning Press . At the time I was living with a young woman, lets call her Z--,   who was my co-editor. We were on the fringes of the punk scene. That is to say, she was in the punk scene and I wasn’t. It was a few years too early to call us “slackers,” plus Z-- worked a real job in the research division of the NYPL, while I was a low-paid “journalist” for suburban newspapers.   We collected weird pamphlets and books. Z-- kindly introduced me to the writings of Charles Fort (whose wit and creativity make him transcend the crackpot category). Other treasures collected include a pamphlet about the benefits of “rebound” exercise (on small trampolines), aka "reboundology," and one I since have lost about Baltasare Forestiere, the Mole Man of Fresno, who carved out an enormous underground house in the desert of California for a bride in Italy who refused to join him
Read more

"Man from Mars" is 2014 Locus Award Finalist

Image
I'm pleased to announce that my book, T he Man from Mars: Ray Palmer's Amazing Pulp Journey (Tarcher/Penguin, 2013) has been named a Finalist for the 2014 Locus Award in nonfiction. You can find some great books on the list of finalists. My book on Ray Palmer, an overlooked editor from early SF who was at the helm of Amazing Stories from 1938 until 1949, gets to take a place close to books about Margaret Brundage (the Weird Tales cover artist who enjoyed envisioning damsels in peril) and another stellar SF&F artist Hannes Bok, one of Ray Palmer's pals. Thanks to all who participated in the voting! 
Read more