DEL REY, Lester

   Working name of US writer Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico Smith Heathcourt-Brace Sierra y Alvarez-del Rey y de los Verdes (1915-1993). His father was a poor sharecropper of part-Spanish extraction, and LDR's education proceeded in fits and starts before dwindling away after two years in college. After holding a variety of temporary jobs he began to write in the late 1930s, his first published work being "The Faithful" for ASF in 1938. This was rapidly followed by his classic ROBOT story, "Helen O'Loy" (1938). Many of his early stories are remarkable for their sentimentality, but the best was the unsentimental suspense story Nerves (1942 ASF; exp 1956; rev 1976), about an accident in a NUCLEAR-POWER plant and the struggle to avert a major catastrophe. He stepped up his output after becoming a full-time professional writer in 1950, but this was accompanied by a decline in average quality. He produced several juvenile novels, some as Philip St John (a name he first used in 1939). He wrote also as Erik van Lhin, John Alvarez, Marion Henry, Philip James, Charles SATTERFIELD and Edson MCCANN (the last two pseudonyms being used on collaborations with Frederik POHL, who also used Satterfield on some solo stories). LDR's most notable works of the 1950s and 1960s were: Preferred Risk (1955 with Pohl, writing together as McCann; reprinted 1980 as by Pohl and LDR); the ultra-tough novel of COLONIZATION Police Your Planet (1953 Science Fiction Adventures; cut 1956 as by Erik van Lhin; rev 1975 as by LDR and Erik van Lhin); and an early novel on the theme of OVERPOPULATION, The Eleventh Commandment (1962); rev 1970). The second of the short-lived "Galaxy Magabooks" (GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS), The Sky is Falling/Badge of Infamy (1963 dos), featured revised versions of two magazine novellas: The Sky is Falling (1954 Beyond as "No More Stars" with Pohl, writing together as Charles Satterfield; rev 1963 for the Magabook; 1974 dos) and Badge of Infamy (1959 Satellite; rev 1963 for the Magabook; 1973 dos). Some novels which appeared under his name in 1966-8 were actually written, from LDR's extensive outlines, by Paul W. FAIRMAN; these include The Runaway Robot (1965), Rocket from Infinity (1966), The Infinite Worlds of Maybe (1966), The Scheme of Things (1966), Tunnel through Time (1966), Siege Perilous (1966; vt The Man without a Planet 1969) and Prisoners of Space (1968). His most recent solo novel was Pstalemate (1971), about the predicament of a man who discovers that he has PSI POWERS, in the knowledge that all psi-powered individuals go insane. Weeping May Tarry (1978), as by LDR with Raymond F. JONES, is a novel by Jones extrapolating the theme of LDR'S "For I Am a Jealous People" (Star Short Novels anth 1954 ed Frederik Pohl).

   From the late 1940s, as well as doing a considerable amount of writing, LDR was actively involved with various business and editorial projects. In the early 1950s he was editor of FANTASY MAGAZINE, ROCKET STORIES (under the house name Wade KAEMPFERT), SPACE SCIENCE FICTION and, for a time, SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES, leaving all these positions after a dispute in 1953. He edited an anthology of juvenile sf, The Year After Tomorrow (anth 1954) with Cecile Matschat and Carl Carmer, and one of the many series of The Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year - \#1 (anth 1972), \#2 (anth 1973), \#3 (anth 1974), \#4 (anth 1975) and \#5 (anth 1976). He selected the GARLAND Library of Science Fiction reprint series (45 vols, all 1975) and compiled Fantastic Science Fiction Art (1975). After the death of P. Schuyler MILLER in 1974 he took over ASF's book-review column (he had previously written reviews for Rocket Stories under the pseudonym Kenneth Wright, and had done occasional reviews for other magazines under his own name, notably IF in 1968-73). His fourth wife, Judy-Lynn DEL REY (nee Benjamin), was for some time on the staff of Gal and its companions - where he served as features editor 1969-74 - and became sf editor for BALLANTINE BOOKS in the mid-1970s; LDR joined the company in 1977, when it began issuing its sf and fantasy lines under the imprint DEL REY BOOKS - named in honour of her - and he continued to operate these lines alone after his wife's death in 1986 until his retirement at the end of 1991. His history of sf, The World of Science Fiction: 1926-1976 - The History of a Subculture (1979), focuses narrowly on the US pulp tradition.LDR was a versatile but rather erratic writer who never fulfilled his early promise. His best work appears in the collections . . . And Some Were Human (coll 1948; with "Nerves" cut, rev vt Tales of Soaring Science Fiction from . . . And Some Were Human 1961) and Gods and Golems (coll 1973); much of this is reprinted in The Best of Lester del Rey (coll 1978). There is an interesting autobiographical commentary in The Early del Rey (coll 1975). LDR was given the NEBULA Grand Master award for 1990.

   BS

   Other works: Marooned on Mars (1952 juvenile); Rocket Jockey (1952 juvenile, as by Philip St John; vt Rocket Pilot UK; reprinted 1978 as by LDR); Attack from Atlantis (1953), a juvenile; Battle on Mercury (1953) as by Erik van Lhin, a juvenile; the Moon sequence of juvenile tales, comprising Step to the Stars (1954), Mission to the Moon (1956) and Moon of Mutiny (1961); Rockets to Nowhere (1954) as by Philip St John, a juvenile; Robots and Changelings (coll 1957); The Cave of Spears (1957); Day of the Giants (1950 Fantastic Adventures as "When the World Tottered"; 1959); Outpost of Jupiter (1963), a juvenile; Mortals and Monsters (coll 1965); The Best of Hal Clement (coll 1979), ed; Once Upon a Time: A Collection of Modern Fairy Tales (anth 1991) with Risa Kessler.

   About the author: "Lester del Rey" in Seekers of Tomorrow (1967) by Sam MOSKOWITZ.

   See also: ALIENS; ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION; COSMOLOGY; CRIME AND PUNISHMENT; DISCOVERY AND INVENTION; DYSTOPIAS; ESP; EVOLUTION; GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION; GAMES AND SPORTS; GOLDEN AGE OF SF; HUGO; MARS; MERCURY; MOON; MUTANTS; ORIGIN OF MAN; PREDICTION; PUBLISHING; RELIGION; SATIRE; SOCIAL DARWINISM; SPACESHIPS; VENUS.