Born 1923 New York City -- Died 1958
Kornbluth was a prolific writer and contributed greatly to the life of the pulp magazines as well as the development of science fiction as a genre. His first work was published (under the penname Kenneth Falconer) at age sixteen: "The Worlds of the Guru". He was also a member of the Futurian Society, a coterie of young authors and fans of Science Fiction including Asimov, Blish, Pohl, and Wollheim. Many of the Futurians published under pseudonyms in order to help other members who managed low budget pulps fill publication quotas. This may explain why Kornbluth published "So You Want to Be a Space Flier?" under the pseudonym Martin Pearson (a pseudonym commonly associated with Donald Wollheim) in _Cosmic Stories_, Wollheim's pulp. [For a personal response to this article and links to information about the American Space Program, click *here*]
Kornbluth was posessed of a "dark, sardonic humor" which emerged in bitter and moralistically complex tales. Many of his best works offer "a clear view of humanity's frail ethics and amorality." His early and sudden death from hypertension in 1958 abruptly ended what may have been a lucrative career.*
*Source Information for this HTML document:
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Nicholls, Peter. "The Futurians." _The Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction: An Illustrated A to Z_. 1979 ed.
Tymn, Marshall B., and Mike Ashley, eds. _Science Fiction, Fantasy,
and Weird Fiction Magazines_. Westport, Conn: Greenwood P,
1985.
Wuckel, Dieter, and Bruce Cassiday. _The Illustrated History of
Science Fiction_. Trans. Jenny Vowles. New York: Ungar
Publishing Company, 1989.