Today, January 9, is the birthday of Algis Budrys (1931-2008). Budrys did most of  his writing in the 1950s and first half of the sixities. He wrote seven novels plus a composite novell, Michaelmas.

Budrys was intrumental in setablishing teh Writers of the Future Program and was a guidng figure there until his death. He was a regular attendee at Constoga for the last few years of his life. I met him several times at those conventions. At the time, he was working  as an agent.

Budrys wrote a substantial body of short fiction. Sadly, much of it was never collected, and most of what was is long out of print. He was a well-known writer in the late fifities and early sixties. His novels Who? and Rogue Moon were finalists for the Hugo Award in 1959 and 1961, respectively.

He is long overdue for a retrospective collection, but it probably isn’t going to happen. Not enough people know his work, and the financial return on such a project would probably make the project a money loser.