THOMAS, Theodore L(ockard)

(1920-)

   US writer and lawyer, prolific in the magazines under his own name, sometimes rendered Ted Thomas, and as Leonard Lockhard, the pseudonym he used for his Patent Attorney spoof series (8 stories 1952-64), some of which were with Charles L. HARNESS. He began publishingsf in 1952 with 2 stories, "The Revisitor" for Space Science Fiction and "Improbable Profession" (as Lockhard) for ASF, and appeared frequently inthe magazines until about 1980 with tales competently designed for their markets, the most effective perhaps being those, like "The Weather Man" (1962), set on a future Earth dominated by a Weather Control Board. WithKate WILHELM he wrote 2 novels, The Clone (1959 Fantastic as by TLT alone; exp 1965) and The Year of the Cloud (1970), both featuring unnatural DISASTERS. The eponymous menace in the first novel represents a rare usein sf of what is a CLONE in the strict biological sense.

   JC

   See also: ECOLOGY; MONSTERS; ORIGIN OF MAN; POLLUTION; SUN; TIME TRAVEL.