Frederik Pohl

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

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Frederik Pohl (November 26, 1919—) is an American science fiction writer and editor. In early adulthood, he lived in New York and was a member of the Futurians fan group.

Related Topics:
November 26 - 1919 - American - Science fiction - New York - Futurians

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When he was a teenager, Pohl attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, forming a lifelong friendship with fellow writer Isaac Asimov. But, this was during the Great Depression, and Pohl had to drop out of school when he was fourteen, in order to get a job.

Related Topics:
Bronx High School of Science - Isaac Asimov - Great Depression

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Pohl joined the Communist Party as a teenager. But he was expelled from the Communist Party because more senior members of the Communist Party thought that his science fiction fandom risked corrupting youth.

Related Topics:
Communist Party - Science fiction fandom

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Pohl has married several times. One of his wives was Judith Merril, also an important figure in the world of science fiction. Pohl and Merril had some children.

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He was a friend and collaborator with C.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. In addition to The Space Merchants (a.k.a., perhaps more wittily, The Merchants of Venus), 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).

Related Topics:
C.M. Kornbluth - Novel - Dystopian - Satire - 1950s - 1960s

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In the 1970s, Pohl made a comeback as a writer with novels like 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. Another notable late novel of his is Jem (1980).

Related Topics:
1970s - Heechee - Nebula - 1978 - Hugo Award - 1980

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From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine If, winning the Hugo for If three years running. In the mid-1970s, he 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.

Related Topics:
1959 - 1969 - Galaxy - If - Hugo - Bantam Books - Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren - Joanna Russ

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