Thomas N. Scortia

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Thomas Nicholas Scortia (born August 29, 1926 in Alton , Illinois , † April 29, 1986 in La Verne , California ) was an American science fiction writer, scientist and editor. He also occasionally used pseudonyms such as Arthur R. Kurtz , Scott Nichols and Gerald MacDow .

Life

Scortia graduated from a college at Michigan State University in 1944 and immediately went to the US Army, where he served during World War II. On his return in 1946 he studied at Washington University in St. Louis , was a chemist and worked in the aerospace industry. His specialty was chemical mixtures for solid rocket rockets ; He held a patent for a special fuel that was used on a Jupiter mission. He's been writing science fiction stories for magazines such as Future , SF Adventure and Fantastic since the 1950s . In 1970 he became a freelance writer and published thrillers with science fiction elements, mostly together with Frank M. Robinson . His greatest success was The Glass Inferno , filmed very successfully as the Flaming Inferno . Most of his books are about disasters, in the course of which Scortia also incorporated his professional experience. In the submarine thriller The Gold Crew, for example, vapors slowly drive the crew of a nuclear-armed submarine crazy.

He died of leukemia at the age of 59, perhaps tracing back to his work as a nuclear test observer in the 1960s.

bibliography

Novels
  • What Mad Oracle? A Novel of the World As It Is (1961)
  • Artery of Fire (1972)
  • Earthwreck! (1974)
  • The Glass Inferno (1974, with Frank M. Robinson)
    • German: Inferno. Translated by Heinz Nagel. Herbig, Munich & Berlin 1975, ISBN 3-7766-0730-0 .
  • The Prometheus Crisis (1975, with Frank M. Robinson)
    • German: Reaktor XZ 519. Translated by Heinz Nagel. Herbig, Munich & Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-7766-0782-3 .
  • The Nightmare Factor (1979, with Frank M. Robinson)
  • The Gold Crew (1980, with Frank M. Robinson, made for television in 1986 as The Fifth Missile )
  • Blowout! (1987, with Frank M. Robinson)
Short story collections
  • Caution! Inflammable! (1976)
  • Get Out of My Sky (1980, with Poul Anderson and James Blish )
  • The Best of Thomas N. Scortia (1981)
Short stories
  • The Prodigy (1954)
  • Caution! Inflammable! (1955, also as End of the Line )
  • The Shores of Night (1956)
  • Sea Change (1956)
  • One Small Room (1956)
  • The Lonely Stars (1957, also as Scott Nichols)
  • The Bomb in the Bathtub (1957)
  • Fulfillment (1957)
  • The Stunning Science Fiction Caper (1957, also as Gerald Macdow)
  • Cat O'Nine Tales (1957)
  • Gag Rule (1957)
  • A Walk in the Snow (1957)
  • Alien Night (1957)
  • Cassandra (1957, as Scott Nichols)
  • John Robert and the Egg (1957, also as John Robert and the Dragon's Egg )
  • Genius Loci (1957)
  • Last Meeting Place (1957)
  • Insane Planet (1958)
  • The Avengers (1958)
  • The Renegade (1959)
  • The Icebox Blonde (1960)
  • Artery of Fire (1960)
  • Caliban (1960, with Jim Harmon)
  • Though a Sparrow Fall (1965, also as Scott Nichols)
  • The Destroyer (1965)
  • Broken Image (1966)
  • Morality (1969)
  • Superiority Complex (1969)
  • Judas Fish (1970)
  • When You Hear the Tone (1971)
  • Gee, Wurlitzer! It's a dad! (1971)
  • Fall Out One (1972)
  • The Worm in the Rose (1972)
  • Woman's Rib (1972)
  • By the Time I Get to Phoenix (1972)
  • Final Exam (1973)
    • German: final exam. In: Roger Elwood (ed.): Beyond Tomorrow. Ueberreuter, 1976, ISBN 3-8000-3137-X .
  • Flowering Narcissus (1973)
  • Tarrying (1973)
  • The Goddess of the Cats (1973)
  • The Tower (1973)
  • The Weariest River (1973)
  • Thou Good and Faithful (1973)
  • Blood Brother (1974)
    • German: The stranger. In: Roger Elwood (ed.): Journey to Infinity. Buje (Buje Science Fiction), 1976, ISBN 3-414-13000-9 .
  • Who is Sylvia? (1974, with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro)
  • Old, Old Death in New, New Venice (1975)
  • The Last War (1975)
  • The Premier's Lady (1975)
  • The Worm (1975)
  • Someday I'll Find You (1976)
Anthologies
  • Strange Bedfellows: Sex and Science Fiction (1972)
  • Two Views of Wonder (1973, with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro )
  • Human Machines: An Anthology of Stories about Cyborgs (1975, with George Zebrowski )

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Scortia, Thomas N.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Scortia, Thomas Nicholas (full name); Kurtz, Arthur R .; Nichols, Scott; MacDow, Gerald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American science fiction writer, scientist, and editor
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Alton , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1986
Place of death La Verne , California