Obituaries

 Legendary editor and publisher Betty Ballantine, 99, died February 12, 2019 at home in Bearsville NY. Her career in publishing began in the 1930s, and she was instrumental in the rise of mass-market paperbacks and helped found both Bantam Books and Ballantine Books.

Elizabeth Norah Jones was born September 25, 1919 in India to a colonial family. At 12 she moved with her family to Jersey in the Channel Islands, ...Read More

Writer Carrie Richerson, 66, died February 2, 2019 in an Austin TX rehabilitation center following years of poor health. Richerson began publishing short fiction in the early ’90s, with work appearing in Amazing Stories, Asimov’s, F&SF, Pulphouse, Realms of Fantasy, and other magazines and anthologies. Some of her work was collected in Something Rich and Strange (2001). She was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New ...Read More

Author Carol Emshwiller, 97, died February 2, 2019 in Durham NC, where she was living with her daughter.

She began her long career with “This Thing Called Love” in Future (1955), and was known for her experimental and feminist fiction. Many early stories appeared in F&SF and the Orbit anthologies, and some of her most striking early work is collected in Joy in Our Cause (1974). Other collections include Verging ...Read More

Larry Eisenberg, 99, died December 25, 2018 in a Lincoln MA hospice of complications from leukemia. Eisenberg published dozens of SF stories in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, beginning with “The Mynah Matter” (1962), and is best known for his sequence of humorous SF stories about Emmett Duckworth, many collected in The Best Laid Schemes (1971).  Story “What Happened to Auguste Claro?” appeared in Dangerous Visions (1967).

Lawrence Eisenberg was ...Read More

Writer Jane Langton, 95, died December 22, 2018. Best known for her mystery novels for adults, her SF/F work includes the Grace Jones, Hall Family, and Homer Kelly series for young readers, and novel Paper Chains (1977). Langton was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) in 2017. Her work was nominated for several Edgar awards and won a Nero Wolfe award in 1984. The Fledgling (1980) was ...Read More

Novelist, playwright, and screenwriter William Goldman, 87, died November 16, 2018 of colon cancer in Manhattan. Goldman is best known in SF circles for his novel The Princess Bride (1973), and for writing the script for the classic 1979 film adaptation. Other novels of genre interest include Control (1982) and The Silent Gondoliers (1983). He is widely famous for his Academy Award-winning screenplays like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ...Read More

Legendary comics writer and editor Stan Lee, 95, died November 12, 2018 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles CA.

During his long tenure at Marvel Comics, Lee helped create iconic characters like the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and Spider-Man. His groundbreaking collaborations with artist Jack Kirby include the Avengers and Thor. Lee popularized the “Marvel Method” of comic writing, which emphasized close collaboration between writers and artists. Under ...Read More

Author Dave Duncan, 85, died October 29, 2018 from a brain hemorrhage caused by a fall the previous week. Duncan was a founder and honorary lifetime member of SF Canada (Canada’s National Association for Speculative Fiction Professionals). He won the Aurora Award in 1990 for West of January and in 2007 for Children of Chaos. He was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2015. ...Read More

Editor and fan Pat Lupoff, 81, died October 18, 2018. She co-edited the influential fanzine Xero with husband Richard Lupoff and Bhob Stewart. Xero won a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1963, making Pat Lupoff one of the first women to win a Hugo. She and her husband co-edited The Best of Xero, a finalist for the Best Related Book Hugo Award in 2005. She worked on various other ...Read More

Writer Michael Scott Rohan, 67, died August 12, 2018 in an Edinburgh, Scotland hospital.

His debut novel was Run to the Stars (1983), but he was best known for the Winter of the World fantasy series that began with The Anvil of Ice (1986) and continued with The Forge in the Forest (1987), The Hammer of the Sun (1988), The Castle of the Winds (1998), The Singer and the Sea ...Read More

Award winning editor and author Harlan Ellison, 84, died in his sleep on June 28, 2018.

Harlan Jay Ellison was born May 27, 1934 in Cleveland OH. His first stories, “The Gloconda” and “The Sword of Parmagon”, appeared in 1949 in the Cleveland News. He attended Ohio State University from 1951-53 before being expelled and moved to New York City in 1955 where he lived in the same boarding house ...Read More

Writer Christopher Stasheff, 74, died June 10, 2018. Stasheff is best known for his long-running Warlock universe, blending SF and fantasy elements, launched with his debut The Warlock in Spite of Himself (1969) and continuing through several sub-series.

Christopher Boris Stasheff was born January 15, 1944 in Mount Vernon NY. He attended the University of Michigan, studying radio and television, and later worked as a production assistant and script supervisor. ...Read More

Editor and author Gardner Dozois, 70, died May 27, 2018 at a Philadelphia PA hospital of a sudden overwhelming systemic infection. Dozois was involved in science fiction for over 50 years, and was easily one of the most influential editors in the modern era of the field.

Gardner Raymond Dozois was born July 23, 1947 in Salem MA. He published short fiction in the early ’60s, served as a military ...Read More

American novelist PHILIP ROTH, 85, died of congestive heart failure on May 22, 2018 in a Manhattan hospital. Roth was the author of more than 30 books including Goodbye, Columbus (1959), Portnoy’s Complaint (1969), and his American trilogy: American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), and The Human Stain (2000). During his career he won two National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle awards, three PEN/Faulkner Awards, a ...Read More

Literary agent Susan Ann Protter, 78, died April 26, 2018 after a serious illness. Protter was born October 16, 1939 in Manhattan, grew up in Brooklyn and Long Island, and spent most of her years on the Upper West Side. She attended Syracuse University, where she earned a master’s degree in French, and traveled the world extensively. She taught French briefly, then began working for Harper & Row in the ...Read More

Writer David Bischoff, 66, died March 19, 2018 in Eugene OR. He began publishing short fiction in March 1975 with “The Sky’s an Oyster, the Stars Are Pearls” for Perry Rhodan #66, followed by more than 60 stories, some of which were collected in Tripping the Dark Fantastic (2000). His first novel was The Seeker (1976), written with Christopher Lampton, and he wrote or co-wrote dozens of original novels under ...Read More

Writer Karen Anderson, 85, died March 18, 2018 in Los Angeles. Anderson began publishing work of SF interest with “The Innocent Arrival” in Galaxy (1958), and is best known for novels written in collaboration with her husband Poul Anderson. They co-wrote Roma Mater (1986), Gallicenae (1987), Dahut (1988), and The Dog and the Wolf (1988) in the King of Ys series, and The Golden Horn (1980), The Road of the ...Read More

Scientist and author Stephen Hawking, 76, died March 14, 2018 at home in Cambridge, England. Hawking was a brilliant physicist, whose many accomplishments include the discovery of “Hawking radiation,” the energy that emerges from black holes — a discovery that marked a turning point in modern physics. Hawking was also a popularizer of science, famous for bestselling non-fiction book A Brief History of Time (1988). He also co-wrote five middle-grade ...Read More

Writer Mary Rosenblum, 65, died March 11, 2018 when the small plane she was piloting crashed near La Center WA.

Mary Freeman was born June 27, 1952 in Levittown NY. She attended Reed College, graduating with a biology degree, and worked as a medical researcher. She began publishing SF with “For a Price” (1990), and notable stories include Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist “One Good Juror” (1997, with James Sarafin), ...Read More

Author Kate Wilhelm, 89, died March 8, 2018 in Eugene OR. Wilhelm was an influential SF writer and writing teacher with a career that spanned six decades. She wrote more than 40 books of SF and mystery, helped run the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference, and was instrumental in the creation of the Clarion Workshop.

Her first genre story was “The Pint-Sized Genie” (1956). Over a dozen of her stories ...Read More

Author, editor, critic, and historian Peter Nicholls, 78, died March 6, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. Nicholls created (and edited, as long as his health would allow) The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, arguably the single most essential reference work in the field of SF.

Nicholls began working on The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction in the mid-’70s. He was general editor of the first version, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: An Illustrated ...Read More

Writer Victor Milán, 63, died February 13, 2018 in Albuquerque NM after years of declining health due to cancer.

His first SF story was “Soldatenmangel” (1981), and his first novels were in the War of Powers series in collaboration with Robert E. Vardeman. His solo debut, The Cybernetic Samurai (1985) won a Prometheus Award, and was followed by Prometheus Award-nominated sequel The Cybernetic Shogun (1990). He collaborated on historical fantasy ...Read More

Dallas Mayr, 71, who wrote horror as Jack Ketchum, died January 24, 2018 in New York. He had cancer. Ketchum was named a World Horror Grand Master in 2011, and won a Bram Stoker Award for life achievement in 2015.

Dallas William Mayr was born November 10, 1946 in Livingston NJ. He attended Emerson College in Boston, earning a BA in English, and taught high school for two years. He ...Read More

Author Julian May, 86, died October 17, 2017.

May’s first SF story was “Dune Roller” in Astounding (12/51), later filmed as The Cremators (1972). During the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s she mostly moved away from science fiction, writing in numerous genres and under many pseudonyms, including Bob Cunningham, Lee N. Falconer, John Feilen, Matthew G. Grant, Jean Wright Thorne, Ian Thorne, and George Zanderbergen. In all she wrote nearly 300 ...Read More

Author and scientist Yoji Kondo, who wrote SF as Eric Kotani, 84, died October 9, 2017.

His Island Worlds series (written with John Maddox Roberts) includes Act of God (1985) The Island Worlds (1987), and Between the Stars (1988). He wrote standalones Delta Pavonis (1990) and Legacy of Prometheus (2000) with Maddox, and Supernova (1991) with Roger MacBride Allen. With Dean Wesley Smith he wrote Star Trek Voyager: Death of ...Read More

Writer ElizaBeth Gilligan, 55, died October 9, 2017 of cancer. Gilligan’s first story was “Evolution” (1990), and she published several stories in anthologies and magazines. She was best known for the Silken Magic trilogy: Magic’s Silken Snare (2003), The Silken Shroud (2004), and Sovereign Silk (2017). She edited anthology Alterna-Teas (2016), wrote a column for Midnight Zoo in the 1990s, and served as secretary of SFWA from 2002 to 2003. ...Read More

Publisher Hugh Hefner, 91, died September 27, 2018 at home in the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Hefner created Playboy magazine in 1953, and spun it into the Playboy Enterprises empire including clubs, TV, and book and magazine publishing. A revolutionary men’s magazine for its time, Playboy from the start featured not only nude females, but also articles and stories by notable authors, among them some of the best in ...Read More

Writer Harvey Jacobs, 87, died September 23, 2017 of a sudden bacterial infection shortly after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

Harvey Jay Jacobs was born January 7, 1930 in New York. He often wrote movingly of the Jewish experience, sometimes with a magical realist bent, and used SF elements for satirical purposes as well. His first work of genre interest was “A Wind Age” in Tomorrow (1951), and other notable ...Read More

SF writer Jerry Pournelle, 84, died September 8, 2017, at his home in Studio City CA after a sudden illness.

Jerry Eugene Pournelle was born August 7, 1933 in Shreveport LA. He served in the US Army from 1950-52, and attended the University of Iowa from 1953-54. He earned his bachelor’s at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1955, where he also took a master’s in statistics and systems ...Read More