Name: ALVAREZ DEL REY, Ramon Felipe Aged: 77
Born: June 2, 1915 Where: Saratoga, Winona County, Minnesota
Died: May 10, 1993 Where: New York City
Interred: _ _ _
Married 2: Helen Schlaz When: 1945
Married 3: Evelyn Harrison When: July 23, 1954
Married 4: Judy-Lynn Benjamin When: March 21, 1971
Awarded: The 1972 E. E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark Award); the 1985 Balrog Special Award; and, the 1990 Nebula Grand Master Award.

Lester lost his mother shortly after his birth and that may account for his critical attitude as a reviewer, editor, and writer. Del Rey kept controversy attached to himself as though it were a shadow. Lester struggled with his education in the depression years, finally pulling himself up, one stumbling step after another.

While he had limited success in writing for the SF pulps in the late 1930s and early 1940s, del Rey was able to land a job with the prestigious Scott Meredith literary agency in the late 40s. After working there for three years, Lester had learned enough of the literary lay of the land to branch out on his own as a career writer by 1950.

Del Rey then worked as assistant editor, and sometimes editor/writer, for pulps like Space Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Rocket Stories, and Science Fiction Adventures, among others. Lester also wrote regular feature articles for the sister magazines of Galaxy and Worlds of IF. He also wrote reviews for Astounding.

Lester's marriages were several and unfortunate: the first two ended in divorce, his third wife, Evelyn, was killed in a car wreck (Jan 28, 1970), and his fourth marriage to Judy-Lynn Benjamin ended with her death in 1986. Judy-Lynn, however, brought a unique set of editing skills to the team and, together, they built Ballantine Books' fantasy and science fiction line, already respectable, into a power house, and eventually acquired it as Del Rey Books.

In the final months before his death, del Rey, whose vision was never the best, became reclusive with advancing age and seldom left his Manhattan apartment. He died mid-afternoon in New York City Hospital after being admitted a week prior for cardiac care.

Lester's Social Security card was made out to Ramon Alvarez DelRey.

EDITORIAL PEN NAMES: Cameron Hall (Hull), Wade Kaempfert, Philip St. John, & John Vincent.

PEN NAMES: John Alvarez, Marion Henry, Philip James, Henry Marion, Edson McCann, John Raymond, Charles Satterfield (w Fred Pohl), Eric Van Lhin, and Kenneth Wright

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.

BIOGRAPHY: Who Was Who in America, Vol 11, p71

OBITUARY: New York Times, May 12, 1993, pB7 & May 21, 93, p19. But some others here.

Send relevant email to George C. Willick