Algis Budrys

Infobox Science Fiction Writer
name = Algis Budrys

---

caption = Algis Budrys at the 1985 Clarion Science Fiction Writing Workshop
birthdate= January 9,1931
birthplace = Königsberg, East Prussia
deathdate = death date and age|2008|6|9|1931|1|9
deathplace = Evanston, Illinois, USA
occupation = Novelist, Short-story Writer, Editor, Critic| genre = Science fiction
movement =
notableworks = "The Falling Torch", "Rogue Moon", "Who?"
debut_works = "The High Purpose" ("Astounding Science Fiction", 1952)
influences =
religion =

Algis Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names "Frank Mason", "Alger Rome", "John A. Sentry", and "William Scarff".

Biography

Budrys was born Algirdas Jonas Budrys in Königsberg in East Prussia. He was the son of the consul general of the Lithuanian government (the pre-World War II government still recognized after the war by the United States, even though the Soviet-sponsored government was in power throughout most of Budrys's life). His family was sent by the Lithuanian government to the United States in 1936 when Budrys was 5 years old.

Budrys was educated at the University of Miami, and later at Columbia University in New York. His first published science fiction story was "The High Purpose", which appeared in "Astounding Science Fiction" in 1952. Beginning in 1952 Budrys worked as editor and manager for such science fiction publishers as Gnome Press and Galaxy Science Fiction. Some of his science fiction in the 1950s was published under the pen name "John A. Sentry", a reconfigured Anglification of his Lithuanian name. Among his other pseudonyms in the SF magazines of the 1950s and elsewhere, several revived as bylines for vignettes in his magazine "Tomorrow Speculative Fiction", is "William Scarff". He also used the pen name "Alger Rome" in his collaborations with Jerome Bixby.

Budrys's 1960 novella "Rogue Moon" was nominated for a Hugo Award, and was later anthologized in "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two" (1973). His Cold War science fiction novel "Who?" was adapted for the screen in 1973. In addition to numerous Hugo Award and Nebula Award nominations, Budrys won the Science Fiction Research Association's 2007 Pilgrim Award for lifetime contributions to speculative fiction scholarship.

Budrys was married with 4 sons and last resided in Evanston, Illinois. He died at home, from metastatic malignant melanoma on June 9, 2008.cite news|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/wednesday/metro/chi-hed-budrys-11-jun11,0,1972869.story|title=Tapped human side of science fiction|last=Jensen|first=Trevor|date=2008-06-11|work=chicagotribune.com|accessdate=2008-06-11]

Bibliography

Novels

*"False Night" (1954)
*"Man of Earth" (1956)
*"Who?" (1958)
*"The Falling Torch" (1959)
*"Rogue Moon" (1960)
*"Some Will Not Die" (1961) (an expanded and restored version of "False Night")
*"The Iron Thorn" (1967) (as serialized in "If" (magazine); published in book form as "The Amsirs And The Iron Thorn")
*"Michaelmas" (1977)
*"Hard Landing" (1993)
*"The Death Machine" (2001) (originally published as "Rogue Moon" against Budrys's wishes)

Collections (Fiction, Essays, and mixed)

* "The Unexpected Dimension" (1960)
* "Budrys' Inferno" (1963)
* "The Furious Future" (1963)
* "Blood and Burning" (1978)
* "Benchmarks: Galaxy Bookshelf" (1984)
* "Writing to the Point" (1994)
* "Outposts: Literatures of Milieux" (1996)
* "Entertainment" (1997)
* "The Electric Gene Machine" (2000)

Short Stories

* "The Stoker and the Stars" (as John A. Sentry, in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 1959)

* "The Price" (1960) – first appeared in "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction", February 1960. Also published in the short story anthology "The War Book" (edited by James Sallis, 1969).

* "For Love" (originally published in "Galaxy Science Fiction", June, 1962) – appears in "The Seventh Galaxy Reader" edited by Frederik Pohl (Doubleday Science Fiction, 1964).

* "Be Merry" (1966) published in "If (magazine)", December 1966, Vol. 16, No. 12, Issue 109.

Audio Recording

* "84.2 Minutes of Algis Budrys" (1995), Unifont (Budrys's own company). Released on cassette, this featured Budrys reading his short stories "The Price", "The Distant Sound of Engines", "Never Meet Again", and "Explosions!".

Magazine

* "Tomorrow Speculative Fiction" (1993–2000); initially edited by Budrys and published by Pulphouse Publishing, with its second issue it was published and edited by Budrys with assistance from Kandis Elliott under the Unifont rubric. It ceased publication as a paper and ink magazine and became a webzine late in the decade.

Anthologies

* "L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol. III" (1987)
* "L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol. 6" (1990)
* "L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol 12" (1996)
* "L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Vol. 16" (2000)
* "L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol 19" (2003)

References

External links

*
* [http://scifan.com/writers/bb/BudrysJAlgirdas.asp Bibliography] in SciFan
* [http://www.alamo-sf.org/lonestarcon2/budrys.html Brief autobiography]
* [http://www.sfsite.com/08a/alg14.htm Interview with Algis Budrys]
*
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/algis-budrys-sciencefiction-writer-and-editor-846966.html Obituary] by John Clute in "The Independent" website