S P A C E L I G H T
INDEX
Name: WALDO, Edward Hamilton
Aged: 67
Born: February 26, 1918
Where: Staten Island, New York
Died: May 8, 1985
Where: Eugene, Oregon
Interred: Cremated
Married: Dorothe Fillingame
When: 1940 (div 1945)
Married 2: Mary Mair
When: 1948 (div 1951)
Married 3: Marian McGahan
When: 1951
Companion#4: Wina Bonnie Golden
When: 1969+
Companion#5: Helen Jayne Tannehill
When: 1976+
Awarded: Nebula and Hugo Awards for 1970's
Short Story "Slow Sculpture"; International Fantasy Award for More Than
Human; & 1985's World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement;
inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000.
Theodore Sturgeon
"I am not a writer ... a writer is someone
who has to write. The only reason
I write is because it's the only
way I can justify all the other things I didn't do."
And he wanted to do everything, try everything, and learn about everything. In the end, Ted had gone thru a lot of it. He became a Science Fiction writer beginning with a few tentative stories in his late teens and then hit the floor running in 1939 as one of John Campbell's favorite writers and soon expanded into a nationally known author.
Using all story lengths, Sturgeon was as good in one as in another: short stories "Graveyard Reader" and "A Touch of Strange;" novelettes "It" and "The Martian and the Moron;" novellas "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff" (shades of the Kuttners) and "...And My Fear is Great;" novels Venus Plus X and More Than Human; with numerous volumes of collections and, currently, having all works in print.
Sturgeon, like his peers, wrote historical, mystery, and western novels. He adapted his short stories to television scripts, including several for Star Trek where he is credited with being creator of the Prime Directive (non-interference with other cultures). Writing numerous articles, Ted was also a columnist for National Review magazine.
Ted has been blamed for being the first to bring sex into Science Fiction (not likely) or praised for bringing love into Science Fiction (possibly)...depending on your point of view. Either way, his works are often sexually laced and he was ahead of his time. Sturgeon was one of those intellects with an obsession for things sexual. As one of his hobbies, Sturgeon played guitar and loved to perform bawdy songs, of which he had an almost inexhaustible supply.
Opinionated and earthy, Sturgeon offered personal thoughts to the world in the following forms (from Sturgeon's mouth):
Sturgeon's Law. "Nothing is always absolutely so."
Sturgeon's Revelation. "Ninety percent of everything is shit." (crap and crud freely substituted depending on audience)
Corollary 1. "The existence of immense quantities of trash in science fiction is admitted and it is regrettable; but it is no more unnatural than the existence of trash anywhere."
Corollary 2. "The best Science Fiction is as good as the best fiction in any field."
[Sturgeon's Law and Revelation have since become confused, with the latter substituted for the former. ]
Sturgeon's personal papers and manuscripts were deposited in the archives of the University of Kansas. Dr. James Gunn (the SF writer) created in 1987 the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for short fiction that is presented annually by the University of Kansas. This is one of a pair of awards, along with the John W. Campbell Award given for the novel form.
Thumbnail is from a 1976 TusCon photo by Carol De Priest.
PEN NAMES: E. Waldo Hunter, E. Hunter Waldo, Fredrick R. Ewing
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Big one here! or mine here.
BIOGRAPHY: Who Was Who in America, Vol VIII, p386and Science Fiction Writers, Scribners 1982. Also these two sort-of biographies: (1) Theodore Sturgeon by Lahna F. Diskin (Starmont Reader's Guide No. 7), 72p, 1981 pb, Starmont House, Mercer Island, WA, and (2) Theodore Sturgeon, by Lucy Menger, 136p, 1981 pb, Frederick Ungar.
BIOGRAPHY (ONLINE): Try the excellent page maintained by Eric Weeks, here.
OBITUARY: The Eugene, Oregon, Register Guard and The New York Times
