S P A C E L I G H T
INDEX
Name: Porges, Arthur
Aged: 90
Born: August 20, 1915
Where: Chicago, IL
Died: May 12, 2006
Where: Pacific Grove, CA
Interred: _ _ _
Married: _ _ _
When: _ _ _
Arthur Porges
"When the ruum was six feet away, he saw gleaming finger-hooks
flick from warty knobs, and a hollow, sting-like probe,
dripping greenish liquid, poised snakily between them."
Arthur Porges was already a teacher with a college mathematics degree when WWII came along and he was drafted almost immediately in January of 1942. Luckily, he was needed stateside as an instructor for the military. He didn't write fiction until after the war and was a natural short form writer who amassed an estimated 250 to 300 stories, mostly in the mystery field. His science fiction and fantasy output was approximately 90 vignettes and short stories, never exceeding the latter length and seemed written to rid himself of an itch that he couldn't quite scratch.
Over the last 30 years or so, Science Fiction burned itself out on short story collections. These books were perceived by publishers as break-even or money losers . . . no movies, no sequels, no TV (after the demise of Twilight Zone type programs). So Porges stories went uncollected until recently when, mostly through fan efforts, The Mirror and Other Strange Reflections appeared in 2002, while he was still alive. Arthur's stories were of a type --- deceptively whimsical and usually fatal in the end, a WWII author's trait. They were always cleverly done, even exotic in that they immediately jerked the reader into a strange and previously unexperienced reality . . . among the best or more famous were "The Rats," "Third Sister," "The Fly," "The Devil and Simon Flagg," "The Ruum," "Movie Show," "The Grom," "Priceless Possession," and "The Fanatic." There is some hard science fiction in Porges work (stories sold to Campbell & Analog) but mostly there is a fantasy element present . . . more in the line of 'selling one's soul' than 'ghoul & cruel.'
Porges stories are still being found and identified as computer's do their thing . . . he also wrote a large body of articles and essays, many of which were published while he lived at Pacific Grove, CA, in The Monterey Herald, which is the only newspaper known to have published an obituary.
Thumbnail photographer unknown.
PEN NAMES: Peter Arthur, Pat Rogers, Abel Jacobi, Derek Page, and Maxwell Trent.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.
OBITUARY: Monterey County Herald (CA) - June 14, 2006
MILITARY WWII: SN-36310313, Cook Co, Ill., Jan 8, 1942, Pvt, b 1915 Ill., white, 4 years of college, Occupation teacher, single.
