Wilson Tucker
This article is about the writer. For the NFL tight end of the 1970s, see Bob Tucker (football).Arthur Wilson "Bob" Tucker (born
November 23,
1914) is an
American mystery and
science fiction writer and
fan. He occasionally publishes under the name Bob Tucker.
Tucker became involved in
science fiction fandom in
1932 and in that decade began publishing a
fanzine,
The Planetoid. From
1938 to
1975, he published the
fanzine Le Zombie, which lasted for more than sixty issues and later was revived as a
webzine. He published the
Bloomington News Letter from his home in
Bloomington, Illinois which dealt with the writing field. Active in letter-writing as well, Tucker has long been a popular fan, coining many phrases familiar in fandom. On multiple occasions fallacious reports of his death have been made.
In
1941, Tucker published his first short story, "Interstellar Way Station." Between 1941 and 1979 he produced twenty-five science fiction short stories. He also turned his attention to writing novels, with eleven mystery novels and a dozen science fiction novels to his credit. His most famous novel may be
The Year of the Quiet Sun (
1970), which won the
John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Although Tucker has written more than twenty novels, both science fiction and mystery, he has always viewed writing as an avocation instead of an occupation. He worked instead as a movie
projectionist and theater electrician.
Tucker is also noted for using the names of fellow fans and other friends in his fiction, to the point where the literary term for doing so is now called
tuckerization.
Tucker won the
Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1970 and the Retro-Hugo for same category in
1954. His
Science Fiction Newsletter (a.k.a.
Bloomington News Letter) won the Retro-
Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in
1951. In 1996
SFWA made Tucker its second
Author Emeritus. In
2003, Tucker was inducted into the
Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
Much of his short fiction was collected in
The Best of Wilson Tucker (
1982).
The Lincoln Hunters, in which time-travellers from an oppressive future society seek to record
Abraham Lincoln's "lost speech" of May 19, 1856, contains a vivid description of Lincoln and his time, seen through the eyes of a future American who feels that Lincoln and his time compare very favorably with the traveller's own.
*
Wilson Tucker Home Page*
Wilson Bob Tucker - Author and Fan with photo gallery of Tucker and page images of Tucker's fanzine
Le Zombie{{Persondata
NAME=Tucker, Arthur Wilson | ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Tucker, Wilson (for literary works); Tucker, Wilson "Bob"; Tucker, Bob | SHORT DESCRIPTION= | DATE OF BIRTH=November 23, 1914 | PLACE OF BIRTH= | DATE OF DEATH= | PLACE OF DEATH=
|
