The central British Fortean.
Eric Frank Russell was born in Berkshire, England, 6 January 1905. His father was an instructor at the Royal Military Academy. He’s ben the subject of a recent biography—Into Your Tent—and so my own biographical contribution will be brief, and this (very long) post will be mostly an intellectual history. He was raised in Egypt; he variously worked as a telephone operator, quantity surveyor, draughtsman, commercial traveller (something like a traveling salesman) and technical writer for a Liverpool steel company. He was influenced by the American (religious) skeptic, Robert Ingersoll. Russell discovered science fiction via the British Interplanetary Society in the mid-1930s, and started writing around that time. He became closely associated with the editor John W. Campbell, though he also published some in “Weird Tales.” Russell used a number of pseudonyms.
He visited America in 1939, and in the 1940s served in the RAF, in which he worked as a wireless mechanic and radio operator. Russell spent more of his time writing int he late 1940s, but also continued to work elsewhere. He continued to be active through the 1950s, but his output dropped precipitously in the 1960s, mostly collections and reprints—this after a heart attack in 1959, the same year Tiffany Thayer died of one. John L. Ingham, his biographer, notes that Russell was coarse and sometimes hard to get along with. He cursed a lot, and wore his various prejudices on his sleeve: he was anti-Semitic and not fond of Italians. Russell was tall—6’2”—and lanky.
Eric Frank Russell was born in Berkshire, England, 6 January 1905. His father was an instructor at the Royal Military Academy. He’s ben the subject of a recent biography—Into Your Tent—and so my own biographical contribution will be brief, and this (very long) post will be mostly an intellectual history. He was raised in Egypt; he variously worked as a telephone operator, quantity surveyor, draughtsman, commercial traveller (something like a traveling salesman) and technical writer for a Liverpool steel company. He was influenced by the American (religious) skeptic, Robert Ingersoll. Russell discovered science fiction via the British Interplanetary Society in the mid-1930s, and started writing around that time. He became closely associated with the editor John W. Campbell, though he also published some in “Weird Tales.” Russell used a number of pseudonyms.
He visited America in 1939, and in the 1940s served in the RAF, in which he worked as a wireless mechanic and radio operator. Russell spent more of his time writing int he late 1940s, but also continued to work elsewhere. He continued to be active through the 1950s, but his output dropped precipitously in the 1960s, mostly collections and reprints—this after a heart attack in 1959, the same year Tiffany Thayer died of one. John L. Ingham, his biographer, notes that Russell was coarse and sometimes hard to get along with. He cursed a lot, and wore his various prejudices on his sleeve: he was anti-Semitic and not fond of Italians. Russell was tall—6’2”—and lanky.