Science fiction and fantasy writer.
Born Bristol, Pennsylvania, November 25 1926.
Died Orinda, California, July 31, aged 74.
With his oversized glasses and his ruffled mop of hair,
Poul Anderson resembled an eccentric scientist. Fittingly,
he had an Honours degree in physics, and was known for writing
"hard" science fiction (the term given to scientifically
accurate stories). "Tau Zero" (1970), probably
his most celebrated novel, is a case in point. The story
of a spaceship, hurtling through the cosmos at the speed
of light, follows Einstein's Theory of Relativity to its
startling (but logical) conclusion.
"Tau Zero" cemented Anderson's reputation. The
next year, when "Locus" magazine asked its readers
to name their favourite science fiction author of all time,
he came fourth (edged out by the unmovable trio of Robert
A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Sir Arthur C. Clarke). "Many
scientists have told him that they got their start by reading
not just science fiction, but his science fiction,"
said his widow Karen. "He was one of science fiction's
giants," said Clarke, "and handled every conceivable
theme in the genre."
Nonetheless, imagination is more important than science
in Anderson's stories, which the author himself described
as "magical realism". Indeed, he also wrote scores
of fantasy novels, many of them inspired by his interest
in Norse mythology. Take the renowned "King of Ys"
series (1987-88), co-written with his wife. With its Roman
setting, it doubled (like most of his fantasy) as well-researched
historical fiction.
Novelist James Blish called Anderson "the enduring
explosion" for his productivity ("We lost count
after 100 [books],"said Karen) and his variety. Anderson's
world could be dark, as in the epic "The Merman's Children"
(1979), set in medieval Denmark, about a family of magical
creatures, cast aside by a newly Christian continent which
no longer has any need for them.
It could also be funny. Look at "The Makeshift Rocket"
(1962), set aboard a spaceship made of beer kegs and fuelled
by "hot agitated beer". Or the popular "Hoka"
stories, co-written with the late Gordon R. Dickson, about
a group of alien teddy bears who interpret Earth's pop culture
as gospel truth.
Anderson's interest in Norse culture was due partly to
his background: his parents were from Denmark, and he lived
there briefly with relatives after his father's death in
a car crash. Most of his childhood, however, was spent with
his mother on a Minnesota farm, where a friend introduced
him to sci-fi pulp magazines.
Graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1948, he
became a full-time writer after deciding that science was
not his forte. His first novel, "Brain Wave" --
in which the world's humans and animals suddenly become
hyper-intelligent -- was published in 1954.
Many of Anderson's stories (notably the numerous adventures
of merchant prince Nicholas van Rijn or action hero Dominic
Flandry) focus on the importance of liberty and free will
-- something that labelled Anderson an extreme right-winger
within the science fiction community. Anderson -- who was
pro-Vietnam, and claimed that living in Berkeley during
the 1960s "scrubbed me free of any last traces of liberalism"
-- argued that the theme was based on "a prejudice
in favour of individual freedom" and "a distrust
of large, encompassing systems."
Perhaps surprisingly, Anderson had little interest in technology,
still using a typewriter until last year because, according
to his wife, he was always "too busy on the next story
to learn how to use computers." For all his low-tech
methods, however, he won numerous awards (including seven
Hugo Awards). Last year, he was inducted into the Science
Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. His last novel, "Genesis",
won the John W Campbell Memorial Award last month for the
best science fiction novel of 2000. Proof that the master
had not lost his touch.
In addition to Karen, his wife of 48 years, Anderson is
survived by a daughter, Astrid; a brother, John; and two
grandchildren.
