Tom Purdom (1936-2024)
SF writer Tom Purdom, 87, died January 14, 2024.
Thomas Edward Purdom was born April 19, 1936 in New Haven CT, and lived in Philadelphia PA with his wife, Sara Wescoat Purdom. He began publishing SF with “Grief for a Man” (1957), and debut novel I Want the Stars appeared in 1964. Other books include The Tree Lord of Imeten (1966), Five Against Arlane (1967), Reduction in Arms (1971), and The Barons of Behavior (1972).
After a relatively fallow period, he began to publish short fiction prolifically in the 1990s, with over 30 stories appearing in Asimov’s, including Hugo Award finalist “Fossil Games” (1999); his most recent story there was “Exit Contract” (2023). Some of his short work was collected in Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons: Twelve Science Fiction Stories (2014) and Romance on Four Worlds: A Casanova Quartet (2015).
His non-fiction works include Reentry and Other Thoughts on Science Fiction (2014), and he edited anthology Adventures in Discovery (1969).
For more, see his entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
