Frederik Pohl

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This article is about the writer and editor. For the historian, see Frederick J. Pohl.

Frederik Pohl (born November 26, 1919) is a noted American science fiction writer and editor, with a career spanning over sixty years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine If, winning the Hugo for If three years running. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

1 Biography and writing career
2 Works
3 External links

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Biography and writing career

In early adulthood, Pohl lived in New York City. While attending the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, he would form a lifelong friendship with fellow writer Isaac Asimov. Pohl dropped out of school at the age of fourteen to find work due to the Great Depression.

He would later join the Communist Party. However, Party elders expelled him, in the belief that the escapist nature of science fiction risked corrupting the minds of youth. Like Asimov, he was a member of the New York based Futurians fan group.

Among Pohl's wives was Judith Merril, also an important figure in the world of science fiction, with whom he had children. He is currently married to science fiction editor and academic Elizabeth Ann Hull.

He was a friend and collaborator with Cyril M. Kornbluth, co-authoring a number of short stories and several novels, including a dystopian satire of a world ruled by the advertising agencies, The Space Merchants. (A belated sequel, The Merchants' War(1984) was written by Pohl alone, after Kornbluth's death).

This is not to be confused with "The Merchants of Venus", an unconnected 1972 novella where the Heechee were first introduced and which also includes biting satire on runaway free market capitalism). Also a number of his short stories were notable for a satirical look at consumerism and advertising in the 1950s and 1960s: "The Wizard of Pung's Corner", where flashy, overcomplex military hardware prove useless against farmers with shotguns, and "The Tunnel Under the World", where an entire community is held captive by advertising researchers (this one-line summary omits several plot twists).

In the mid-1970s, Pohl acquired and edited novels for Bantam Books, published as "Frederik Pohl Selections"; the most notable were Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren and Joanna Russ's The Female Man. Also in the 1970s, Pohl reemerged as a novel writer in his own right, with books such as Man Plus and the Heechee series. He won back-to-back Nebula awards with Man Plus in 1976 and Gateway, the first novel in the Heechee series, in 1977. Gateway also won the 1978 novel Hugo Award. Two of his stories have also earned him Hugo awards: "The Meeting" (with Kornbluth) was a tie in 1973 and "Fermi and Frost" won in 1986. Another notable late novel of his is Jem (1980). Pohl continues to write as of late 2005 and had a new story, "Generations", published in September 2005.

His works include not only science fiction but also articles for Playboy and Family Circle.

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Works

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Series

Heechee:

- The Merchants of Venus (1972) (novella in The Gold at the starbow's End)
- Gateway (1976) (winner of the Hugo award and Nebula award)
- Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (1980)
- Heechee rendezvous (1985)
- Annals of the Heechee (1987)
- The Gateway Trip (1990)
- The Boy Who Would Live Forever: A Novel of Gateway (2004)

Eschaton:
- The Other End of Time (1996)
- The Siege of Eternity (1997)
- The Far Shore of Time (1999)

Mars:
- Man Plus (1975) (Winner of Nebula award)
- Mars Plus (1994) (with Thomas T. Thomas)

Saga of Cuckoo (with Jack Williamson):
- Wall Around A Star (1975)
- Farthest Star (1983) [prequel]

Starchild Trilogy (with Jack Williamson):
- The Reefs of Space (1964)
- Starchild (1965)
- Rogue Star (1969)

Space Merchants:
- The Space Merchants (1953) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
- The Merchants War (1985)

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Novels

Search the Sky (1954) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
Gladiator at Law (1955) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
Slave Ship (1956)
Wolfbane (1957) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
Drunkard's Walk (1960)
A Plague of Pythons (1964) (also called Demon in the Skull)
The Age of the Pussyfoot (1965)
Jem (1980)
The Cool War (1981)
Starburst (1982)
The Years of the City (1984)
The Coming of the Quantum Cats (1986)
Chernobyl (1987)
The Day The Martians Came (1988)
Narabedla Ltd. (1988)
Homegoing (1989)
The World at the End of Time (1990)
Stopping at Slowyear (1991)
Mining the Oort (1992)
The Voices of Heaven (1994)
O Pioneer! (1998)

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Collections

Alternating Currents (1956)
The Case Against Tomorrow (1957)
Tomorrow Times Seven (1959)
The Man Who Ate the World (1960)
Turn Left At Thursday (1961)
The Abominable Earthman (1963)
Digits and Dastards (1966)
The Frederik Pohl Omnibus (1966)
Day Million (1971)
The Wonder Effect (1974) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
In The Problem Pit (1976)
The Early Pohl (1976):
- 'Elegy for a Dead Planet: Luna,' 1937, (writing as Elton Andrews) [a poem, his first published piece]
- 'The Dweller in the Ice,' 1940, (writing as James MacCreigh)
- 'The King's Eye,' 1940, (writing as James MacCreigh)
- 'It's a Young World,' 1940, (writing as James MacCreigh)
- 'Daughters of Eternity,' 1940, (writing as James MacCreigh)
- 'Earth, Farewell!,' 1940, (writing as James MacCreigh)
- 'Conspiracy on Callisto,' 1943, (writing as James MacCreigh)
- 'Highwayman of the Void,' 1943, (writing under Dirk Wylie's name)
- 'Double-Cross,' 1943, (writing as James MacCreigh)
Survival Kit (1979)
Planets Three, 1982 (a collection of 3 novellas written as James MacCreigh):
- 'Figurehead'
- 'Red Moon of Danger'
- 'Donovan Had a Dream'
Platinum Pohl (2005)