Frederik Pohl

Born in New York on November 26, 1919, Frederick Pohl is considered today one of the last living legends in the field of science fiction. Before he even turned twenty, he was the editor of two science fiction magazines, "Astonishing Stories" and "Super Science Stories." Immediately after the war, he began a career as an agent for science fiction writers. His first work was written in 1953 in collaboration with Cyril Kornbluth. It was "The Space Merchants," a classic science fiction work that predicts the significant impact of advertising on modern society. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Pohl wrote science fiction short stories and novels, often under pseudonyms. His most notable works from this decade include "The Midas Plague" (1954) and "The Tunnel Under the World" (1955), satirical stories with a subtle touch of irony and dark humor. In the 1950s, he edited the "Star Science Fiction" anthologies for Ballantine Books (from 1953 to 1959), and in the 1960s, he had a significant influence in the field of science fiction as the editor of two important magazines of the time, "Galaxy" and "If." In the late 1960s, Pohl began to reveal his great writing talent. In 1976, he won the Nebula Award for his work "Man Plus," and in 1977, he published the work that would make him famous and earn him the Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell Memorial Awards for 1978: "Gateway." The book was so successful that Pohl was inspired to write four sequels.