Robert Silverberg - Sam Moskowitz Correspondence Collection, 1951-1968 | Cushing Library

Robert Silverberg

Robert Silverberg is one of the 20th-century's most well-known and important American writers and editors of science fiction. Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1935, Silverberg attended Columbia University and graduated with a BA in English in 1956. During his time at college he wrote and published the juvenile science fiction novel Revolt on Alpha C (1955) - it was to be the first of his long and storied career. Following his graduation from Columbia, Silverberg began writing over the next few years hundreds of science fiction stories, many of which he wrote under a variety of pseudonyms.

By the end of the 1950s, many science fiction magazines, which had been the mainstay of published output for the genre, went out of business, obliging Silverberg to turn to new kinds of writing such as popular science and other nonfiction. At the same time he continued to write a number of well-regarded and popular science fiction novels. In the 1960s Silverberg averaged nearly 2 million words per year, marking him as one of the most prolific SF writers of the age. However, this punishing pace was slowed near the end of the decade by both a hyperactive thyroid gland and a house fire, both of which took a toll on Silverberg.

This slowdown resulted, however, in a more polished and experimental phase in Silverberg's writing. SF scholar Thomas Clareson notes that from 1969 to 1976 Silverberg "conducted his most deliberate experiments and attained the most command of his material." Barry Malzburg wrote that "in or around 1965 <span class="highlight0 bold">Silverberg</span> put his toys away and began to write literature." Perhaps the most important work of this period was the 1967 novel Thorns, which was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1967 and a Hugo Award in 1968. Other significant novels by Silverberg written at this time include The Masks of Time (1968), Nightwings (1969), Tower of Glass (1970), Downward to The Earth (1970), and Son of Man (1971).

In 1972 Silverberg moved from New York to California. Ongoing poor sales for his newer, bolder, and more experimental work caused him to announce his retirement from science fiction in 1975. However, in 1980 he returned to the genre with the publication of Lord Valentine's Castle, a mixture of science fiction and more traditional heroic fantasy that was the first of his famous Majipoor cycle of novels and stories. Majipoor is a planet much larger than Earth, populated by a rich diversity of alien cultures. The success of Lord Valentine's Castle relaunched Silverberg's literary career, and he has gone on to write a number of well-received works, including Sailing to Byzantium (1984), To the Land of The Living (1990), and Kingdoms of the Wall (1993), among many others. He has also continued to write numerous short stories as well as edit and co-edit a number of anthologies, all of which have contributed to Silverberg's reputation as one of the most significant writers in the genre of the last decades.

Silverberg has won a number of awards in the course of his career, including multiple Hugos and Nebulas, as well as numerous nominations for these and other awards. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1999, and was made a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2005. He has been married twice, once to Barbara Brown (1956-1986) and to Karen Haber (1987-present). He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sam Moskowitz

Sam Moskowitz was born June 30, 1920, in Newark, N. J.  He served in the U. S. Army during World War II.  He worked in the wholesale food industry for most of his life, but maintained a literary career also.  He was a literary agent and science fiction magazine editor, and was very active in the science fiction fan communities.  Among others, he was a member of the Science Fiction League, Fantasy Amateur Press Association, First Fandom, Science Fiction Writers of America, Eastern Science Fiction Association and others.  His activity was rewarded by a special plaque from the 13th World Science Fiction Convention in 1955 for his history of fan life, The Immortal Storm, the Big Heart Award for contributions to Science Fiction, and was named to the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame in 1979.

Moskowitz was one of the founders of the World Science Fiction Convention, now in its 64th year.  He was one of the first, if not the first, to lecture on science fiction to a University class.

Moskowitz was widely recognized as the leading amateur historian of science fiction and fantasy during his lifetime.  He wrote many articles in the science fiction magazines, about science fiction and individual authors.  In many cases, those were collected into book form later. Moskowitz was also a prolific letter-writer, communicating with many fanzines with comments, corrections of information published in the fanzines, or short articles on the field.

His historical treatments of science fiction and fantasy include The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction (1954); Explorers of the Infinite: Shapers of Science Fiction (1963); Seekers of Tomorrow: Masters of Science Fiction (1966); and Science Fiction in Old San Francisco (1980), and may other titles.  Moskowitz frequently published his history and criticism in The Fantasy Commentator, a highly regarded amateur magazine.  His final completed book, a history of John W. Campbell, will appear in that magazine beginning in 2006.