Frederik Pohl
Born 26 November 1919 · Died 2 September 2013
From New York City, New York, United States · Nationality: United States · Writes fiction and nonfiction
Frederik Pohl, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father held a number of jobs, and his family moved many times in his childhood before settling in Brooklyn when he was about seven. He attended Brooklyn Tech high school, but dropped out and took a job to help support his family. As a teen, he founded the New York science fiction writer's group The Futurians. His first publication, a poem, appeared in Amazing Stories in 1937, when he was 18 years old. In 1936, he joined the Young Communist League and became President of the Brooklyn branch, but he left it in 1939 after Stalin-Hitler pact. In 1939, at the age of 21, he was editor of both Super Science Stories and Astonishing Stories, and regularly published his own stories in both of them. He married his first wife in 1940. In 1943 both the magazines he was editing folded, and he worked as a literary agent. During World War II, he served with the Army Air Corps from 1945-1945. He divorced his first wife during this period and married his second wife in 1945. In 1948 he married his third wife, Judith Merril, who he divorced in 1953, the same year he married his fourth wife, Carol Metcal Ulf.
In the early 1950s his literary agency business failed and he returned to editing as an assistant editor at Galaxy Science Fiction and later also if Magazine. In 1966, 1967, and 1968 his magazines won Hugo Awards for Best Professional Magazines.
Quotes
“Increase of population was always good news to us. More people, more sales. Decrease of IQ was always good news to us. Less brains, more sales.”
The Space Merchants, Chapter 9 “What will come of these things? That is a fair question. Unfortunately there is no answer. Not yet. If we knew the answer in advance, we would not have to perform the experiment.”
Platinum Pohl, p. 349
Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Books by Frederik Pohl in order
Books by Frederik Pohl in the order they were published, from The Space Merchants (1952) to The Boy Who Would Live Forever (2004).
- 1The Space Merchants
The Space Merchants1952 - 2Assignment in Tomorrow
Assignment in Tomorrow1954 - 3Undersea Fleet
Undersea Fleet1956 - 4The Starchild Trilogy
The Starchild Trilogy1963 - 5The Reefs of Space
The Reefs of Space1964 - 6The Seventh Galaxy Reader
The Seventh Galaxy Reader1964 - 7The Best of Frederik Pohl
The Best of Frederik Pohl1975 - 8Man Plus
Man Plus1976 - 9Gateway
Gateway1977 - 10Jem
Jem1979 - 11Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon1980 - 12Galaxy, Thirty Years of Innovative Science Fiction
Galaxy, Thirty Years of Innovative Science Fiction1980 - 13Nebula Winners Fourteen
Nebula Winners Fourteen1980 - 14Yesterday's Tomorrows
Yesterday's Tomorrows1982 - 15Heecheerendezvous
Heecheerendezvous1984 - 16The Merchants' War
The Merchants' War1984 - 17The Years of the City
The Years of the City1984 - 18Black Star Rising
Black Star Rising1985 - 19The Coming of the Quantum Cats
The Coming of the Quantum Cats1986 - 20Chernobyl
Chernobyl1987 - 21The Annals of the Heechee
The Annals of the Heechee1987 - 22The Gateway Trip
The Gateway Trip1990 - 23The Boy Who Would Live Forever
The Boy Who Would Live Forever2004