Tag Archives: Frederik Pohl

Fred Pohl’s “The Day the Icicle Works Closed”

Today, November 26, marks the birth of Frederik Pohl (1919-2013). Pohl was one of the first writers I read when I began reading adult science fiction. The Best of Frederik Pohl was one of the first books I bought when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club, maybe the very first. Pohl had a dark and cynical veiwpoint, it was nothing compared to his friend and sometime collaborator, C. M. Kornbluth.

Today I read “The Day the Icicle Works Closed”. First published in the February 1960 issue of Galaxy, this is one of Pohl’s best stories. It was included in both The Best of Frederik Pohl and Platinum Pohl The Collected Best Stories, which is where I reread it for this post. Continue reading

Frederik Pohl at 99

Today, November 26, is Frederik Pohl’s birthday.

Pohl pretty much did everything in the field a person could do except art.  I’m not aware of him engaging in any visually artistic activities.  He was a fan (member of the Futurians), editor of both pulps and books, agent, and writer.

I grew up reading Pohl.  The Best of Frederik Pohl was one of the first books I bought when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club the summer before I started high school.  Most of his other collections were out of print at the time but easily available in second hand bookstores.  Ah, those were the days.

I always preferred Pohl’s short fiction to his novels, but he was excellent at all lengths.  If you haven’t read Gateway, you should.  I’ll raise a glass in his memory tonight and try to work in a short story if I can.

Reading “The Merchants of Venus” to Observe Frederik Pohl’s Birthday

Fred PohlFrederik Pohl was born on this date, November 26, in 1919.  He passed away in 2013.  Pohl was one of the top science fiction writers of the Twentieth Century.  In addition to writing such classics as The Space Merchants (cowritten with C. M. Kornbluth)  and the memoir The Way the Future Was, as well as editing Galaxy magazine and being a founding member of the fan group The Futurians, he was an active author until the day he died.

The 1970s was a productive decade for Pohl.  Beginning with “The Merchants of Venus”, his Heechee series was highly successful.  The first novel, Gateway, won the Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards.  Continue reading

RIP, Frederik Pohl (November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013)

Fred PohlOne of the last living links to the early days of science fiction has died. Frederik Pohl entered the hospital yesterday morning with respiratory distress and passed away yesterday afternoon.

Pohl started out as a fan and moved to become an editor, agent, and writer. His first editing job came when he was just 19, taking the helm at Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories. He was also a founding member of the Futurians.  He served in World War II, and after the war briefly became a literary agent.

He collaborated with a number of writers throughout the decades, including Lester Del Rey (Preferred Risk as by Edson McCann), Jack Williamson (The Starchild Trilogy, Farthest Star, Wall Around a Star, Land’s End, The Singers of Time) and Arthur C. Clarke (The Last Theorem).  His most famous and successful collaborations were with fellow Futurian C. M. Kornbluth, beginning with the classic The Space Merchants, and including Search the Sky, Gladiator-at-Law and Wolfbane as well as a number of short stories.

Pohl edited Ballantine Books’ Star Science Fiction series in the 1950s, introducing the  concept of the original (nonthemed) anthology.  In the 1960s, he was the editor of Galaxy and If magazines.  During the 70s he was an editor at Bantam.Gateway

Like his collaborator Jack Williamson, Pohl continued to write novels almost until his death.  His most recent was All the Lives He Led (2011).  His Heechee saga is one of the landmarks of modern science fiction, especially the first volume, Gateway.

I had the privilege of meeting Pohl once in the summer of 1991, when the Science Fiction Research Association held a meeting on the campus of the University of North Texas.  Among those in attendance were Pohl, Jack Williamson, L. Sprague de Camp, and James Gunn.  Pohl was very friendly and chatted with me for a bit about what he was working on.  The books he signed for me at that event are among the most prized in my library.

I can’t help but feel like an era has ended.  I grew up reading science fiction by people like Pohl.  In fact, one of the first, if not the first, book I ever bought from the Science Fiction Book Club was The Best of Frederik Pohl.  I bought almost every SFBC edition of his work until I graduated high school.

platinum pohlHe will be missed.  As cliched as it sounds, we shall not see his like again.  Many of his novels are still in print, and his best short fiction was collected a few years ago in Platinum Pohl, which contains a number of stories written after The Best of Frederik Pohl was published.