Fred Pohl died yesterday at age 93. Ed Gorman had it right when he said Pohl was a monument. any of his books and stories are classics; all are eminently readable. He was a superb editor, bringing us the seminal Star science fiction series of anthologies (among so many others), he helmed Galaxy and If, he published Delaney's Dahlgren and Russ' The Female Man, he co-wrote Arthur C. Clarke's last novel, as agent and editor he encouraged many of the field's best (and probably, some of the field's worst) writers, his non-fiction books Practical Politics and (with Isaac Asimov) The Angry Earth are exemplars of common sense, he ruffled feathers at the first World Science Fiction Convention, he won more awards than I can count, and he kept his popular blog up until the day he died (yesterday's post was on executions in Texas). By all accounts he was a nice guy. I know that there are many people, like me, who are incredibly saddened by his death.
From Out of the Unknown, a dramatization of Pohl's story "The Tunnel Under the World."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkgs-mU-CFo
And a few Frederik Pohl quotes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzhWH95aV08
R. I. P., Mr. Pohl
Although the name is familiar, I never read him. In my next life I am going to concentrate on science fiction and fantasy.
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