Lester del Rey
Encyclopedia
Lester del Rey was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 science fiction author and editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction
Winston Science Fiction
The Winston Science Fiction set comprises 35 science fiction juvenile novels by famous science fiction authors such as Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, Ben Bova, and Lester del Rey and one non-fiction book Rockets through Space: The Story of Man's Preparations to Explore the Universe by del Rey...

 juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn since 1998, by Bertelsmann AG. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy...

, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...

, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey
Judy-Lynn del Rey
Judy-Lynn del Rey née Benjamin was a science fiction editor.Born with dwarfism, she was a fan and regular attendee at science fiction conventions and worked her way up the publishing ladder, starting with work at the science fiction magazine Galaxy.Judy-Lynn was friends with Lester del Rey and...

.

Birth name

Del Rey often told people that his real name was Ramon Felipe Alvarez-del Rey (or sometimes even Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico Smith Heartcourt-Brace Sierra y Alvarez del Rey y de los Uerdes). He also claimed that his family was killed in a car accident during 1935. However, his sister has confirmed that his name was really Leonard Knapp and that while the accident in 1935 killed his first wife, his parents, brother, and sister were not killed in the accident.

Career

Del Rey first started publishing stories in pulp magazines in the late 1930s, at the dawn of the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction
Golden Age of Science Fiction
The first Golden Age of Science Fiction — often recognized as the period from the late 1930s through the 1950s — was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published...

. He was associated with the most prestigious science fiction magazine of the era, Astounding Science Fiction, and its editor, John W. Campbell, Jr. In the 1950s, del Rey was one of the main science fiction writers writing for adolescents (along with Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...

 and Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...

). During this time some of his fiction was published under the name "Erik van Lhin".

During a period when del Rey's work was not selling well, he worked as a short order cook at the White Tower Restaurant in New York. After he married his second wife, Helen Schlaz, in 1945, he quit that job to write full time. After meeting Scott Meredith at the 1947 World Science Fiction Convention, he began working as a reader for Scott Meredith's literary agency, where he also served as office manager.

He later became an editor for several pulp magazines and then for book publishers. During 1952 and 1953, del Rey edited several magazines: Space SF, Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction Adventures (as Philip St. John), Rocket Stories (as Wade Kaempfert), and Fantasy Fiction (as Cameron Hall). He was most successful editing for Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...

 with his final wife, Judy-Lynn del Rey, and initiated a science fiction division with her at Ballantine, Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn since 1998, by Bertelsmann AG. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy...

, in 1977.

In 1957, del Rey and Damon Knight
Damon Knight
Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...

 co-edited a small amateur magazine named Science Fiction Forum
Science Fiction Forum
The Science Fiction Forum, founded in 1968 by James Frenkel, is a student club at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.The club maintains a large lending library of science fiction, fact, fantasy and horror with over 17,000 volumes....

. In response to a debate about symbolism within the magazine, del Rey accepted Knight's challenge to write an analysis of James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...

's story "Common Time
Common Time
"Common Time" is a science fiction short story written by James Blish. It first appeared in the August 1953 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and has been reprinted several times: in the 1959 short-story collection Galactic Cluster; in The Testament of Andros ; in The Penguin Science Fiction...

" that showed the story was about a man eating a ham sandwich.

After science fiction gained respectability and began to be taught in classrooms, del Rey stated that academics interested in the genre should "get out of my Ghetto." Del Rey stated that "to develop science fiction had to remove itself from the usual critics who viewed it from the perspective of [the] mainstream, and who judged its worth largely on its mainstream values. As part of that mainstream, it would never have had the freedom to make the choices it did – many of them quite possibly wrong, but necessary for its development."

Del Rey was a member of an all-male literary banqueting club, the Trap Door Spiders
Trap Door Spiders
The Trap Door Spiders are a literary male-only eating, drinking, and arguing society in New York City, with a membership historically composed of notable science fiction personalities...

, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers
Black Widowers
The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of sixty-six mystery stories which he started writing in 1971...

. Del Rey himself was the model for the "Emmanuel Rubin" character.

Awards

Del Rey was awarded the 1972 E. E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark Award) by the New England Science Fiction Association
New England Science Fiction Association
The New England Science Fiction Association, or NESFA, is a science fiction club centered in the New England area. It was founded in 1967, "by fans who wanted to do things in addition to socializing"...

 for "contributing significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities that made the late "Doc" Smith well-loved by those who knew him". He was awarded the 1985 Balrog Special Award (organized by Locus Magazine), a fan-voted award for works of fantasy. He was also awarded the 1990 Grand Master Award
Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award
The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is an award given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. It is awarded to a living author for lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy. Officially, it is not a Nebula Award though it is awarded at the Nebula ceremony...

 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, or SFWA is a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. It was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight under the name Science Fiction Writers of America, Inc. and it retains the acronym SFWA after a very brief use of the SFFWA...

 for lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.

Novels

  • Marooned on Mars
    Marooned on Mars
    Marooned on Mars is a 1952 juvenile science fiction novel by Lester Del Rey. Illustrations in the first edition are by Alex Schomburg.-Plot summary:...

    (1952)
  • Rocket Jockey
    Rocket Jockey (book)
    Rocket Jockey is a juvenile science fiction novel by Philip St. John with cover illustration by Alex Schomburg. The story follows the heroic efforts of a young man Jerry Blaine in his efforts to win the famous rocket race, the Armstrong Classic...

    as Philip St. John (1952)
  • Attack from Atlantis
    Attack From Atlantis
    Attack From Atlantis is a Science fiction novel written by Lester del Rey. The story follows the new Triton submarine on her maiden voyage, but trouble happens when the crew comes face to face with the inhabitants of the underwater city Atlantis...

    (1953)
  • Battle on Mercury as Erik Van Lhin (1953)
  • The Mysterious Planet as Kenneth Wright (1953)
  • Rockets to Nowhere as Philip St. John (1954)
  • Step to the Stars (1954)
  • Preferred Risk (1955) with Frederik Pohl
    Frederik Pohl
    Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...

     [as by Edson McCann]
  • Mission to the Moon (1956)
  • Nerves (1956)
  • Police Your Planet as Erik Van Lhin (1956)
  • Day of the Giants (1959)
  • Moon of Mutiny
    Moon of Mutiny
    Moon of Mutiny is a juvenile Science fiction novel by author Lester del Rey published in 1961 by Holt, Rinehart & Winston as the final part of the Jim Stanley Series...

    (1961)
  • The Eleventh Commandment (1962)
  • Outpost of Jupiter (1963)
  • The Sky Is Falling (1963)
  • Badge of Infamy (1963)
  • The Runaway Robot (1965) was published with del Rey's byline, but was actually ghost-written by Paul W. Fairman
    Paul W. Fairman
    Paul Warren Fairman was an editor and writer in a variety of genres under his own name and under pseudonyms. His detective story "Late Rain" was published in the February, 1947 issue of Mammoth Detective. He published his story "No Teeth For the Tiger" in the February, 1950 issue of Amazing Stories...

     based on an outline by del Rey.
  • The Infinite Worlds of Maybe (1966)
  • Rocket from Infinity (1966)
  • The Scheme of Things (1966)
  • Siege Perilous (1966)
  • Tunnel Through Time
    Tunnel Through Time
    Tunnel Through Time is a 1966 science fiction novel written by American science fiction and fantasy author Lester Del Rey. It is a children's time travel adventure.-Plot summary:...

    (1966)
  • Prisoners of Space (1968)
  • Pstalemate (1971)
  • Weeping May Tarry (1978) with Raymond F. Jones
    Raymond F. Jones
    Raymond Fisher Jones was an American science fiction author. He is best known for his 1952 novel, This Island Earth, which was adapted into the 1955 film This Island Earth.-Career:...


Collections

  • ...And Some Were Human
    ...And Some Were Human
    ...And Some Were Human is a collection of science fiction short stories by author Lester del Rey. The collection was first published in 1948 by Prime Press in an edition of 3,050 copies of which 50 were specially bound, slipcased and signed by the author...

    (1948)
  • Robots and Changelings
    Robots and Changelings
    Robots and Changelings is the second collection of fantasy and science fiction stories by Lester del Rey, published by Ballantine Books in 1957.-Contents:* "The Pipes of Pan" * "Little Jimmy" F&SF 1957)...

    (1957)
  • The Sky is Falling and Badge of Infamy (1966)
  • Mortals and Monsters (1965)
  • Gods and Golems (1973)
  • The Early del Rey (1975)
  • The Early del Rey: Vol 1 (1976)
  • The Early del Rey: Vol 2 (1976)
  • The Best of Lester del Rey (1978)
  • War and Space (2009)
  • Robots and Magic (2010)

Nonfiction

  • Rockets Through Space (1957)
  • Space Flight, General Mills, Inc. 1958, 1957; Golden Press, 1959
  • The Mysterious Earth (1960)
  • The Mysterious Sea (1961)
  • The Mysterious Sky (1964)
  • The World of Science Fiction, 1926-1976: the History of a Subculture (1980)

Edited

  • The Year After Tomorrow with Carl Carmer & Cecile Matschat (1954)
  • Best Science Fiction of the Year #1-#5 (1972–1976)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK