Reginald Bretnor

Reginald Bretnor

Reginald Bretnor (b. July 30 1911 in Vladivostok, Russia - d. July 22 1992 in Medford, Oregoncite web
url=http://gwillick.com/Spacelight/bretnor.html
title=Vital Statistics: Reginald Bretnor
author=George C. Willick
date=2006-05-03
accessdate=2007-02-02
] ) was a science fiction author, born Alfred Reginald Kahn. He flourished between the 1950s and 1980s. Most of his work was in short story form, and usually featured a whimsical story line or ironic plot twist.

Bibliography

*"The Doorstep"
* "The Man On Top"
* "Maybe Just A Little One"
* "Cat"
* "Genius of the Species"
* "The Past and Its Dead People"
* "Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and All"
* "The Ladies of Beetlegoose Nine"
* "Papa Schimmelhorn's 'Yang'"
* "The Gnurrs Come from the Voodvork Out"
* "The Proud Foot of the Conqueror"
* "The Future at War I: Thor's Hammer"
* "The Future at War II: Orion's Sword"
* "The Future at War III: The Spear of Mars"

Under the pseudonym Grendel Briarton (an anagram of Reginald Bretnor), he published a series of science-fiction themed shaggy-dog stories featuring the time-traveling hero Ferdinand Feghoot. Known as "Feghoots", the stories involved Feghoot resolving a situation encountered while traveling through time and space (a la Doctor Who) with a bad pun. In one example, he explained his inability to pay his dues for a Sherlock Holmes fan society by turning out his empty pockets and declaring "share lack". In his adventures, Feghoot worked for the Society for the Aesthetic Re-Arrangement of History and traveled via a device that had no name but was typographically represented as the ")(". In 1980, "The Compleat Feghoot" collected all of Bretnor's published Feghoots and included a selection of winners and honorable mentions from a contest run by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The book is, as of 2006, out of print and very rare.

"The Doorstep" was first published in Astounding and later in "The Year's Greatest Science Fiction And Fantasy". ["The Year's Greatest Science Fiction And Fantasy", Judith Merrill editor, June 1957, pp. 89 "-" 97.]

In the latter 1970s, Bretnor also edited several books about writing science fiction. These titles include:

* "Science Fiction Today and Tomorrow: A Discursive Symposium" (1975)
* "The Craft of Science Fiction: A Symposium on Writing Science Fiction and Science Fantasy" (1976)
* "Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future" (1979)

In 1969, Bretnor published a book on warfare titled "Decisive Warfare: A Study in Military Theory". Largely unnoticed by his science fiction readership but hinted at by his "Future at War" series, it proved him a scholar of varied talents.

Bretnor also wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter "P.S. Letter", edited by Mel Tappan.

He was also known as an early associate of Anton Szandor LaVey in the days before the founding of the Church of Satan.

ee also

*Retreat (survivalism)
*Survivalism
*Mel Tappan

External resources

* [http://www.bretnor.com/BretnorBio.html Biographical introduction] to "The Timeless Tales of Reginald Bretnor"
* [http://www.bretnor.com/BretnorIntro.html Biographical remembrance of Reginald Bretnor] by Poul Anderson
*
* [http://freesfonline.de/authors/bretnor.html Reginald Bretnor's online fiction] at "Free Speculative Fiction Online"

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction — The first issue (Fall 1949) had a cover illustration by Bill Stone and displayed George Salter s calligraphic logo. Salter (1897 1967) had been the art director for Mercury Publications since 1939. He was F SF s art editor from 1949 until 1958.… …   Wikipedia

  • Frank Herbert — Infobox Writer name = Frank Herbert caption = Frank Herbert at the Octocon II convention, Santa Rosa, California, October 1978 (Robert E. Nylund) birthdate = birth date|1920|10|8|mf=y birthplace = Tacoma, Washington deathdate = death date and… …   Wikipedia

  • Social science fiction — is a term used to describe a subgenre of science fiction concerned less with technology and space opera and more with sociological speculation about human society. In other words, it absorbs and discusses anthropology , and speculates about human …   Wikipedia

  • Mel Tappan — Born Melrose H. Tappan III, Mel Tappan (1933–1980) was the editor of the newsletter Personal Survival ( P.S. ) Letter and the books Survival Guns and Tappan on Survival. Tappan was an influential leader of the Survivalist movement[1] who… …   Wikipedia

  • Advent (publisher) — Advent:Publishers is a publishing house founded by Earl Kemp and other members of the University of Chicago Science Fiction Club in 1956, to publish criticism, history, and bibliography of the science fiction field, beginning with James Blish s… …   Wikipedia

  • Frank Herbert bibliography — Contents 1 Bibliography 1.1 Fiction 1.1.1 Dune novels 1.1.2 WorShip novels 1.1.3 ConSentient novels …   Wikipedia

  • Nancy Tappan — was the co editor of the newsletter Personal Survival ( P.S. ) Letter in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She is now the editor of The New Pioneer magazine. Born Nancy Mack, (of the Mack Truck family), she is the widow of Mel Tappan. Contents 1… …   Wikipedia

  • Prix Locus de la meilleure nouvelle longue — Les prix Locus sont décernés chaque année, depuis 1971, par les lecteurs du magazine américain mensuel de science fiction Locus lors de la Westercons qui se déroule le quatrième week end de juillet. La catégorie de la meilleure nouvelle longue… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Genius of the Species — is a short story by Reginald Bretnor (first published with the author name R. Bretnor ), which originally appeared in the anthology 9 Tales of Space and Time edited by Raymond Healy.The story is set in the Soviet Union where a rat problem is… …   Wikipedia

  • Feghoot — A Feghoot is a humorous short story or vignette ending in an atrocious pun.The term originated with a long running series of short science fiction pieces that appeared under the collective title Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot ,… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”