KUTTNER, Henry

(1915-1958)

   US writer. His interest in WEIRD TALES early led him to correspond with H.P. LOVECRAFT and others; his first sale to the magazine was a poem, followed by "The Graveyard Rats" (1936). His stories for it included a Robert E. HOWARD-like SWORD-AND-SORCERY series collected as Elak of Atlantis (1938-41; coll of linked stories 1985). He began topublish sf stories in 1937 with "When the Earth Lived" for TWS. His early sf work included a series about the movie business of the future: "Hollywood on the Moon" (1938), "Doom World" (1938), "The Star Parade"(1938), "The Energy Eaters" (1939) and "The Seven Sleepers" (1940), the last two in collaboration with Arthur K. BARNES. (He and Barnes also wrote together as Kelvin KENT.) HK achieved a certain notoriety with the slightly risque stories he wrote for MARVEL SCIENCE STORIES, notably "The Time Trap" (1938). He used many pseudonyms in this part of his career, andeven more after marrying C.L. MOORE in 1940, when the two wrote very many stories in collaboration; these names included Paul Edmonds, Noel Gardner, Keith Hammond, Hudson Hastings, Robert O. Kenyon, C.H. Liddell, K.H.Maepen, Scott Morgan and Woodrow Wilson Smith. HK also published stories under various house names, including James Hall and Will Garth, as though he wrote "Dr Cyclops" (1940 Thrilling Wonder Stories) under his own name a novelette confusingly unconnected with the novelization as by Will Garth (probably Alexander SAMALMAN) of that same year's film DR CYCLOPS; HK'stale was reprinted as the title story of Dr Cyclops (anth 1967) ed anon (Will GARTH for more details).After their marriage in 1940, most of HK'sand Moore's works were to some extent joint efforts - it is said that each could pick up and smoothly continue any story from wherever the other had left off. Moore seems to have been the more fluent and perhaps the more assiduous (indeed, talented) writer, but HK's wit, deftly audacious deployment of ideas and neat exposition complemented her talents very well. During WWII they became part of John W. CAMPBELL Jr's stable of writers working for ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION. It was then that they devised their best known pseudonyms, Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell, much of their best work appearing initially under these names. The Padgett stories are ingenious and slickly written, often deploying offbeat HUMOUR. HK was the sole author of the Padgett Galloway Gallegher series collectedas Robots Have No Tails (1943-8; coll of linked stories 1952 as by Padgett; 1973 as HK; paperback as by HK; vt The Proud Robot: The CompleteGalloway Gallegher Stories 1983 UK). Other notable Padgett stories include "The Twonky" (1942), filmed as The TWONKY (1952), and the classic "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (1943), about educative toys timeslipped from the future. Two Padgett short novels, Tomorrow and Tomorrow \& The Fairy Chessmen (1946-7; coll 1951; 1st story published separately as Tomorrowand Tomorrow 1963 UK; 2nd story published separately vt Chessboard Planet 1956 US and vt The Far Reality 1963 UK), are intensely recomplicated talesin the tradition of A.E. VAN VOGT, whose influence is also evident in the Baldy series about persecuted SUPERMEN, assembled as MUTANT (1945-53;fixup 1953 as by Padgett; 1954 UK as HK). Most of the O'Donnell stories were Moore's work, including the remarkable "Clash By Night" (1943), whose sequel Fury (1947 as by O'Donnell; 1950; vt Destination Infinity 1958 US) was a collaboration.HK and Moore wrote many colourful novels for STARTLING STORIES during the 1940s. "When New York Vanished" (1940) and The Creaturefrom beyond Infinity (1940 as "A Million Years To Conquer"; 1968) are slapdash sf probably by HK alone, but subsequent works - which became archetypes of the hybrid genre SCIENCE FANTASY - neatly fused HK's vigorous plotting with Moore's romanticism. These included The Dark World (1946 as by HK; 1965 as by HK), Valley of the Flame (1946 as by KeithHammond; 1964 as by HK), "Lands of the Earthquake" (1947 as by HK), The Mask of Circe (1948 as by HK; 1971), The Time Axis (1949 as by HK; 1965), Beyond Earth's Gates (1949 as "The Portal in the Picture" by HK; 1954 dos as by Padgett and Moore) and Well of the Worlds (1952 as by HK; as a GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL by Padgett 1953; vt The Well of the Worlds asby HK 1965 US). The first, second and fifth were combined in The Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner (omni 1987). Earth's Last Citadel (1943 Argosy asby HK and Moore; 1964 as by Moore and HK) also belongs to this sequence, although one other Startling Stories novel, "Lord of the Storm" (1947 as by Hammond), does not. For Startling's companion THRILLING WONDER STORIES HK wrote the humorous Hogben series about an ill assorted family of MUTANThillbillies: "Exit the Professor" (1947), "Pile of Trouble" (1948), "See You Later" (1949) and "Cold War" (1949). In 1950 HK and Moore went tostudy at the University of Southern California; they wrote a number of mystery novels thereafter but very few sf stories. HK graduated in 1954 and went on to work for his MA, but died of a heart attack before it was completed.During his career HK rarely received the credit his work merited, and was to an extent overshadowed by his own pseudonyms. His reputation as one of the most able and versatile of modern sf writers has risen steadily since. His influence on the young Ray BRADBURY was considerable, and many later writers have acknowledged their debt to him. His short stories are distributed over numerous overlapping collections: AGnome There Was (coll 1950 as by Padgett), Ahead of Time (coll 1953), Line to Tomorrow (coll 1954 as by Padgett), No Boundaries (coll 1955 as by HK and Moore), Bypass to Otherness (coll 1961), Return to Otherness (coll 1962), The Best of Kuttner, Volume 1 (coll 1965 UK) and Volume 2 (coll1966 UK), THE BEST OF HENRY KUTTNER (coll 1975) with intro by Ray Bradbury, Clash by Night and Other Stories (coll 1980 UK as by HK and Moore), Chessboard Planet and Other Stories (coll 1983 UK as by HK and Moore) and Secret of the Earth Star and Others (coll 1991). Another early sword-and-sorcery series was collected in Prince Raynor (1939 Strange Stories; coll 1987 chap), while 3 early non-sf stories are in KuttnerTimes Three (coll 1988 chap).

   MJE/BS

   See also: ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN SF; ATLANTIS; AUTOMATION; CHILDREN IN SF; COLONIZATION OF OTHER WORLDS; COMICS; CRIME AND PUNISHMENT; DIMENSIONS; DISCOVERY AND INVENTION; ECOLOGY; ECONOMICS; ESP; FANTASY; FAR FUTURE; GAMES AND SPORTS; GODS AND DEMONS; GOLDEN AGE OF SF; INTELLIGENCE; MESSIAHS; OUTER PLANETS; PARALLEL WORLDS; PSI POWERS; RECURSIVE SF; RELIGION; ROBOTS; SCIENTISTS; SUPERMAN (character); TIME TRAVEL; UFOS; UNDER THE SEA; VENUS.