Kingsley Amis

Sir Kingsley William Amis (April 16, 1922 – October 22, 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than twenty novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He is the father of English novelist Martin Amis.

Science fiction

Amis's critical interest in science fiction led to New Maps of Hell (1960), his interpretation of the genre's literary qualities. He was particularly enthusiastic about the dystopian works of Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, and, in New Maps of Hell, he coined the term "comic inferno", describing a type of humorous dystopia, particularly common to the works of Robert Sheckley. With the Sovietologist Robert Conquest, he produced the science fiction anthology series Spectrum I?IV, which heavily drew upon the 1950s magazine Astounding Science Fiction for sources. He wrote two science fiction novels, The Alteration, an alternate history novel set in a twentieth-century Great Britain where the Reformation never occurred; and the supernatural-horror novel, The Green Man, which the BBC adapted for television.

Related Topics:
Science fiction - Dystopia - Frederik Pohl - C.M. Kornbluth - Robert Sheckley - Sovietologist - Robert Conquest - Astounding Science Fiction - Alternate history - Reformation - BBC

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A tape-recorded conversation on science fiction took place between Amis, C.S.Lewis and Brian Aldiss in Lewis's rooms at Cambridge in December 1962. A transcript appears under the title 'Unreal Estates' in the collection "On Stories" by C.S.Lewis.

Related Topics:
C.S.Lewis - Brian Aldiss

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