Lester Delrey

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Lester del Rey (June 2, 1915 – May 10, 1993) was an American science fiction writer and editor.

He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series and the editor of Del Rey Books, Ballantine Books' fantasy and science fiction imprint, as well as his fourth wife Judy-Lynn Rey.

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Career

In the early 1980s, Del Rey first began publishing stories in pulp magazines, during the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction. From the time that Astounding Science Fiction's editor John W. Campbell published his first short story in the April 1938 issue, he was associated with the name Lester del Rey. The December 1938 issue of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame contained his story "Helen O'Loy," which was selected for the prestigious anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. He had also published stories in Weird Tales (edited by Farnsworth Wright) and Unknown (Campbell), which featured more horror and fantasy respectively by the end of 1939.

During a time when del Rey's work was not selling well, he served as a short order cook at the White Tower Restaurant in New York. He resigned from writing full-time after marrying Helen Schlaz, his second wife, in 1945.

He first three books were published in the Winston juvenile series in 1952, one of which (Rocket Jockey) appeared in an Italian-language version the same year. Del Rey, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Andre Norton, was one of the key writers writing science fiction for teenagers in the 1950s. During this period, several of his stories were published under various pseudonyms, including "Philip St. John" and "Erik van Lhin."

He continued to publish novels, as well as short fiction, under his primary pseudonym Lester del Rey, as well as a number of other pen names, in the 1950s and early sixties. His novel writing slowed down into the sixties, with his last book, Weeping May Tarry (written with Raymond F. Jones), appearing in Pinnacle Books in 1978.

Since meeting Scott Meredith at the 1947 World Science Fiction Convention, he began working as a first reader for the new Scott Meredith Literary Agency, where he also served as the office manager.

He later worked as an editor for several pulp magazines and then for book publishers. del Rey edited several magazines between 1952 and 1953: Space SF, Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction Adventures (as Philip St. John), Rocket Stories (as Wade Kaempfert), and Fantasy Fiction (as Cameron Hall). He edited several anthologies during this period, most notably editing the "Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year" collection from 1972 to 1976.

Del Rey was most successful editing with his fourth wife, Judy-Lynn Rey, at Ballantine Books (as a Random House property, post-Ballantine), where the fantasy and science fiction imprint Del Rey Books was founded in 1977. In February 1992, he retired from the publishing house.

In 1957, del Rey and Damon Knight co-edited a small amateur journal called Science Fiction Forum. Del Rey accepted Knight's challenge to write an essay about a man eating a ham sandwich in the magazine's discussion. Del Rey said that academics interested in the science fiction should "get out of my ghetto" after it gained esteem and began to be taught in classrooms. "To advance science fiction, you had to remove it from the mainstream critics who viewed it from [the] mainstream"'s viewpoint, and who largely based on its conventional values." It would never have been allowed to make the choices it did, some of which were inaccurate but necessary for growth."

If, and following the demise of If in 1974, he wrote "The Reference Library" in September 1969, beginning in September 1969.

Del Rey was a member of the Trap Door Spiders, Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers. "Emmanuel Rubin" was the model for Del Rey's.

In 1965, Algis Budrys said, "There is no writer in this field who is more steadfast in following the rule that fiction is first of all entertainment." Budrys said he had been a good writer because "del Rey has always been his own person" and "his readers."

Budrys said that

The New England Science Fiction Association honoured Del Rey for "contributing significantly to science fiction" in 1972, as well as expounding the personal characteristics that made the late "Doc" Smith well-loved by those who knew him. He received the Locus Magazine's special 1985 Balrog Award for his contribution to fantasy, which was also voted by fans and arranged by Locus Magazine. In 1990, the Science Fiction Writers of America named him as the 11th SFWA Grand Master, having appeared in 1991.

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