Lester del Rey

Lester del Rey (Ramon Felipe Alvarez-del Rey) (June 2 1915 - May 10 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. According to Lawrence Watt-Evans, his birth name was actually Leonard Knapp.

Career

Del Rey first started publishing stories in pulp magazines in the late 1930s, at the dawn of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. He was closely associated with the leading science fiction magazine of the era, Astounding Science Fiction, and its editor, John W. Campbell, Jr. In the 1950s, del Rey was one of the three leading science fiction writers writing for adolescents along with Robert A. Heinlein and Andre Norton. During this time some of his fiction was published under the name Erik van Lhin.

He later made his way into editing for several pulp magazines and then for book publishers. He was most successful editing for Ballantine Books with his fourth wife, Judy-Lynn del Rey, and founded a popular science fiction imprint with her at Ballantine, Del Rey Books, in 1975.

Del Rey was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers. Del Rey himself was the model for the Emmanuel Rubin character.

He was awarded the 1990 Grand Master Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.

Name

Del Rey often told people that his real name was Ramon Felipe Alvarez-del Rey; however, the lawyers for his estate have made it clear that his real name was Leonard Knapp.

Selected works

Fiction

Novels

Rocket Jockey (1952)
Attack from Atlantis (1953)
Step to the Stars (1954)
Preferred Risk (1955) with Frederik Pohl [as by Edson McCann ]
- Magazine/Anthology Appearances:
- Preferred Risk (Part 1 of 4) (1955) with Frederik Pohl
- Preferred Risk (Part 2 of 4) (1955) with Frederik Pohl
- Preferred Risk (Part 3 of 4) (1955) with Frederik Pohl
- Preferred Risk (Part 4 of 4) (1955) with Frederik Pohl
Nerves (1956)
Day of the Giants (1959)
Marooned on Mars (1962)
The Runaway Robot (1965)
Siege Perilous (1966)
Rocket from Infinity (1967)
Pstalemate (1971)
The Sky Is Falling (1973)
Badge of Infamy (1973)
Weeping May Tarry (1978) with Raymond F. Jones
Police Your Planet (1981)
Moon of Mutiny (1982)
Outpost of Jupiter (1982)
The Mysterious Planet (1982)

Collections

...And Some Were Human (1948)
Robots and Changelings (1957)
Mortals and Monsters (1965)
Gods and Golems (1973)
The Early del Rey (1975)
The Early Del Rey: Vol 1 (1976)
The Early Del Rey: Vol 2 (1976)
The Best of Lester del Rey (1978)

Nonfiction

Space Flight, Golden Press, 1959
The Mysterious Earth (1960)
The Mysterious Sky (1964)
The World of Science Fiction, 1926-1976: the History of a Subculture (1980)

Edited

Best Science Ficton of the Year #1-#5 (1972-1976)

External links