Tom Reamy
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Tom Reamy (1935-1977) was an award-winning American science fiction and fantasy author and important figure in science fiction fandom. Tom Reamy died prior to the publication of his first novel. His works are primarily dark fantasy.
Tom Reamy was born in 1935. During the mid to late-1960s he was active in the science fiction fanzine and convention culture. He was publisher of the fanzine Trumpet and was head of MidAmeriCon’s publication division, exerting a strong editorial influence, and also head of the Film Program department of that organization.
Reamy’s only novel, Blind Voices has earned critical comparisons with the works of Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison. The novel deals with the arrival of a strange and wonderful “freak show” at a rural town in Kansas during the 1920s and its effects on the lives of the residents. While not as polished as those authors’ works, critics have regarded Blind Voices as an exceptional first novel, causing fans and critics to ponder how important a figure he could have become.
Reamy died of a heart attack in 1977 while working on stories for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction at his typewriter. At the time of his death, Reamy and artist George Barr were working on a graphic novel version of Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword. The project languished after his untimely death.
Works
- Novels:
- Blind Voices (1978)
- Collections:
- San Diego Lightfoot Sue and other stories (1979)
- Anthologies containing stories by Tom Reamy:
- Nebula Award Stories 10 (1975)
- The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction #22 (1976)
- Nebula Award Stories 11 (1976)
- Sci-Fi Private Eye (1984)
- A Treasury of American Horror Stories (1985)
- Short stories:
- Twilla (1974)
- San Diego Lightfoot Sue (1975)
- The Detweiler Boy (1977)
Awards
- Nebula Best Novellette nominee (1974) for Twilla
- Nebula Best Novellette winner (1975) for San Diego Lightfoot Sue
- Hugo Best Novellette nominee (1976) for San Diego Lightfoot Sue
- John W. Campbell Best New Author winner (1976)
- Nebula Best Novel nominee (1978) for Blind Voices
- Hugo Best Novel nominee (1979) for Blind Voices