TALL, Stephen

   Pseudonym of US writer and biology professor Compton Newby Crook (1908-1981), who began his writing career under various undisclosed pseudonyms in the 1930s; none of this early work was apparently sf, which he began publishing as ST with "The Lights on Precipice Peak" for Gal in 1955. He did not start to be active in the field until more than a decadelater, becoming known initially for the Stardust sequence, beginning with The Stardust Voyages (coll of linked stories 1975), a SPACE-OPERA saga ofthe crew of the Stardust, whose mission is to assess the potential of various planets and the nature of their ALIEN inhabitants. Though the stories exhibit a sameness of effect, they are capable expressions of ST's concern for ECOLOGY, in which discipline he was professionally trained. A sequel, The Ramsgate Paradox (1976), carries the crew into a novel-length adventure. The People Beyond the Wall (1980), is a remarkably late LOST-WORLD tale set under an Alaskan glacier, where a placid UTOPIA isinvaded by the usual suspects.The Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Memorial AWARD for Best First Novel of Sf was established 1983.

   JC

   See also: ANTHROPOLOGY.