Frederick George Paul is a talented American science fiction writer and editor. His writing career lasted more than 75 years, from the first poem he published in 1937 to the last novel entitled “All the Lives He Lived” (2011) and articles and essays published in 2012.
Frederick Paul is a laureate of many prestigious awards: Skylark, Hugo, Locus, Nebula, Forrie, Milford and others. In 1998, the writer became a laureate of the Hall of Fame for his great contribution to the development of the science fiction genre science fiction and fantasy. Below is a biography of Frederick Paul and his career is traced.
early years
Paul was born into the family of Frederick Paul and Anna Mason. His father held various positions, so the family often moved. As a child, Frederick lived in Texas, California, New Mexico and the Panama Canal Zone. When the boy was about 7 years old, the Pauline couple settled in Brooklyn.
Frederick studied at a technical secondary school in Brooklyn, but at the age of 17 he left it, having decided to completely concentrate on his main hobby and vocation - science fiction. It is interesting to note the fact that in 2009 the writer received a diploma from Brooklyn University of Technology for his creative services.
As a teenager, Frederick Paul was one of the initiators of the founding of the Futurians in New York. At this stage of his life, he met talented people who became his faithful friends: Donald A. Wollheim, Isaac (Isaac) Asimov and others.
The prewar and war years
In 1936, Frederick joined the communist organization. He shared the views of the Communists, opposed the racial policies of the fascist leaders A. Hitler and B. Mussolini. However, after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany in 1939, the party line changed, and Frederick Paul could no longer support the interests of the party.
From April 1943 to November 1945, Paul served in the United States Army. After training in the US states of Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado, he was sent to serve in Italy.
Work as a literary agent and editor
Paul began publishing in the late 1930s, using pseudonyms for his early work. His first poem, Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna, was published under the name Elton Andrews in the popular American science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. In 1940, Frederick Paul, co-authored with writer Cyril Kornblat, wrote the story Before the Universe.
Paul began his career as a literary agent in 1937, but his agency did not receive the financial support necessary for a full-fledged work, and in the early 1950s he was forced to close it. Paul was an agent of Isaac Asimov and other talented writers. Between 1939 and 1943, he was editor of Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories. The stories of Frederick Paul were often published in these magazines, but the writer always used pseudonyms, did not disclose his real name. In his autobiography, he wrote that he completed the work of the editor in 1941, with the outbreak of hostilities between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
From the beginning of the 60s to 1969 he was the editor of the so-called tabloid magazines Galaxy Science Fiction and If. In the mid-70s he was engaged in editing novels and continued his writing activities.
Career heyday
After the end of World War II, Frederick Paul was engaged in copywriting of advertising texts, and then worked in the authoritative scientific journal Popular Science. After the war, he began to publish under his own name.
In the 70s, Paul wrote the book "Man Plus" (Man Plus) and the cycle of books "Heeche" (Heechee). Frederick Paul’s book “Gateway” from the Heechee series received three honorable American prizes: Nebula, Hugo, and Locus. Another well-known novel of the writer, "Jam" (1980), became the winner of the National Book Prize.
The works of Frederick Paul include not only science fiction short stories and novels, but also articles for world-famous magazines such as Playboy and Family Circle, as well as scientific works. For some time, the writer was an official expert on the British Encyclopedia on the personality and activities of the emperor Tiberius.
From 1995 until his death, Paul collaborated with James Gunn and Judith Merrill, as well as other gifted artists. Interesting works by one of the most famous American science fiction writers of the 20th and early 21st centuries: the novels “Man Plus” and “The Gates”, the stories “Fermi and Cold” and “Meeting”, the trilogy “The Child of the Stars”, the dilogy “The Cuckoo Saga”.
Personal life
Paul Frederick was married five times. His first marriage was in August 1940. The wife of the future writer was Leslie Perry, who, like Paul, was a member of the Futurian society. The marriage was short-lived, and in 1944 the couple divorced.
In August 1945, in Paris, Frederick married Dorothy LesTina. At this time, a bloody war was going on all over the world, Frederick, and Dorothy served together in the army in Europe. Paul's second marriage was dissolved in 1947, and the very next year he married the writer Judith Merill, who bore him daughter Anne. Paul and Merill divorced in 1952, and in 1953 he married Karol Mitcal Ulf, in a marriage with whom he had three children. The marriage with Karol Mitkal was dissolved in 1983.
Since 1984, Paul was married to a science fiction researcher, Professor Elizabeth Ann Hull, with whom he shared common interests.
last years of life
The famous writer died on September 2, 2013 at the age of 93 years, leaving behind a rich creative heritage. Until his death, the writer Frederick Paul was engaged in his favorite business, to which he devoted most of his life. In 2011, his last novel, All the Lives He Led, was published. In 2012, Paul was writing articles and essays. At the time of his death, he was working on completing the second volume of his autobiography The Way the Future Was (1979).