Today, August 11, is the birthday of Alan E. Nourse (1928-1992). Nourse wrote science fiction to help pay his way through medical school. He received his medical degree in the mid-fifties and continued to write science fiction for roughly a quarter century, from 1951 to the mid-seventies. He also wrote a number of nonfiction books on scienetific and medical topics. Most of these were written in the seventites, eighties, and nineties.

Nourse is pretty much forgotten these days, but he was well-respected when he was writing science fiction. Robert Heinlein dedicated his novel Farnham’s Freehold to Nourse. Heinlein also included Nourse’s wife Ann in his deication to Friday. Continue reading →