William Tenn(1920-2010)
- Writer
Phil Klass was born in London in 1920. His family emmigrated to the US
during the '20s. Phil grew up in New York City. He took to writing
fiction during the lengthy commute to his day job at Bell Labs in New
Jersey. Phil helped many young writers. 'Daniel Keyes', who wrote "Flowers for
Algernon" (Charly (1968)), was a friend of Phil's. Daniel told Phil that an
editor wanted him to change the ending to a happy ending and Phil
encouraged him not to! Under the pseudonum William Tenn, he sold about
60 SF stories in about 20 years, including "On Venus, Have We Got a
Rabbi." Phil was an English professor at Penn State for over 20 years.
One of his students was David Morrell, who went on to write First Blood (1982). Phil has
retired as a professor and lives in the Pittsburgh area. Phil's nephew
is screenwriter David Klass and his nieces are Perri Klass and
Judy Klass.
