Trivia

Science Fiction author. Noted for such series as Deathworld, The Stainless Steel Rat and Bill, the Galactic Hero

He has used house names such as Wade Kaempfert and Philip St. John to edit magazines, and has published other fictions under the names Felix Boyd, Leslie Charteris, and Hank Dempsey.

Harrison was selected by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as the 2009 recipient of their Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.

Harrison lived in many parts of the world including Mexico, England, Ireland, Denmark and Italy.

He was an advocate of the international language Esperanto, which he learned while in the Army during WWII. It appears in several of his books.

He studied art at Hunter College in New York, and ran a studio selling illustrations to comics and science fiction magazines before turning to writing.

He was best known for his "The Stainless Steel Rat" series.

He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II as a gunsight mechanic and gunnery instructor.

He eventually became one of science fiction's leading writers, turning out more than 70 books and short stories. Among them was "Bill, the Galactic Hero," a send-up of Robert Heinlein's hard-edged "Starship Troopers," and "The Technicolor Time Machine," which took aim at Hollywood.

He was co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

Before becoming an editor, Harrison started in the science fiction field as an illustrator, notably with EC Comics' two science fiction comic books, Weird Fantasy and Weird Science.

During the 1950s and 1960s, he was the main writer of the Flash Gordon newspaper strip.

In 1990, Harrison was professional Guest of Honour at ConFiction, the 48th World SF Convention, in The Hague, Netherlands, together with Joe Haldeman and Wolfgang Jeschke.

He is survived by his two children, Todd Harrison and Moira Harrison.

He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2004 and was awarded the Damon Knight Memorial Grant Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2009.

He was drafted into the United States Army before he studied art in New York City.