S P A C E L I G H T
INDEX
Name: KAHN, Alfred Reginald
Aged: 80
Born: July 30, 1911
Where: Vladivostok, RUSSIA
Died: July 15, 1992
Where: Medford, Oregon
Interred: _ _ _
Married: Helen Harding
When: 1949 (d 1967)
Married2: Rosalie Leveille
When: 1969 (d 1988)
Awarded: _ _ _
Reginald Bretnor
"Actually, in all of the arts, ever since the disappearance of an intellectual aristocracy and its replacement by commercial manipulators, the public has been sold the crappy idea that the working artist is, and must be, an impractical, fuzzy-headed sort of Bohemian who needs critics to tell him when he composes well, dealers to tell him when he paints well, and editors to tell him when he writes well."
Played all the bases. Novelist, translator, essayist, short story writer, editor, humorist, and occasionally lectured. One hell of a poker player.
Known as the creator of the "feghoot", Kahn changed his legal name to Bretnor (after a distaff family name) at an early age and his Social Security number is listed under Bretnor. Reared with his mother's English accent, Reginald quickly became "Reg" to his friends. Born to a Russian father and English mother, Reginald moved with the family from Russia to Japan and then to the United States. Bretnor became a US citizen in 1934. Joined the Army and served in one of the last horse cavalry units before being medically discharged. During WWII, Reginald's earlier life in Japan got him a position in the Japanese section of the War Information Office. Bretnor resigned from that job in 1947, decided to write full time, and moved to Berkeley, California.
Reg had a balanced, analytical mind that lacked the egoistical monomania that all writers have who turn out huge quantities of work. So he wrote mostly in short forms, be they fact or fiction, preferring to get a thing completed as soon as possible, so he could move on to something else. His curiosity was insatiable and try as he may, Bretnor could not keep humor at bay from any serious subject. His "Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot" ran in Fantasy & Science Fiction for years and had imitators all over the world. Bretnor also edited several symposium type article/essay works on the various directions of Science Fiction, notable among these were Science Fiction Today and Tomorrow and The Craft of Science Fiction.
Fred Flaxman has gathered 15 of Bretnor's best short stories together in a volume entitled The Timeless Tales of Reginald Bretnor, 1997, Story Books. Information on this book and additional Bretnor biographical information can be obtained here.
PEN NAMES: Grendel Briarton
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.
OBITUARY: The Mail Tribune, Medford, OR
