Henry Kuttner
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Henry Kuttner (April 7 1915 - February 4 1958) was a science fiction author born in Los Angeles, California. As a young man he worked for a literary agency before selling his first story, "The Graveyard Rats", to Weird Tales in 1936.
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Kuttner and Moore
He was known for his literary prose and worked in close collaboration with his wife, C. L. Moore. They met through their association with the Lovecraft Circle, a group of writers and fans who corresponded with H. P. Lovecraft. Their work together spanned the 1940's and 1950's and most of the work was credited to pseudonyms, mainly Lewis Padgett and Laurence O'Donnell. Both freely admitted that one reason they worked so much together was because his page rate was higher than hers. In fact, several people have written or said that she wrote three stories which were published under his name. "Clash by Night" and The Portal in the Picture a.k.a Beyond Earth's Gates have both been alleged to have been written by her, and the article on Moore in the Wikipedia lists The Mask of Circe as by her, when most editions have had his name as the author. The reader should be cautious about accepting these definitively as the referred-to three.
Influence
Marion Zimmer Bradley is among many authors who have cited him as an influence. Roger Zelazny has explicitly talked about the influence of The Dark World on his Amber series as is discussed in the article on the subject. There is a problem when you discuss this, however, which is directly related to Kuttner's work with his wife. Their collaboration makes it difficult to identify who was more influential as even their fans are unsure who wrote what influenced them.
Later Life
Henry Kuttner spent the middle 50's getting his masters degree before dying of a heart attack in 1958.
Partial Bibliography:
Short Stories:
- The Graveyard Rats (1936)
- Thunder in the Dawn (1938)
- Spawn of Dagon (1939)
- Beyond the Phoenix (1939)
- Dragon Moon (1940)
- Mimsy were the Borogoves (1943)
- Clash by Night (with C. L. Moore) (1943)
- The Proud Robot (1943)
- The Time Locker (1943)
- Gallegher Plus (1943)
- The World is Mine (1943)
- Ex Machina(1948)
Novels:
- The Fairy Chessmen
- Dr. Cyclops (1940)
- Valley of the Flame (1946)
- The Dark World (1946)
- The Portal in the Picture a.k.a. Beyond Earth's Gates (with C. L. Moore) (1946)
- Fury, (1947)
- The Time Axis (1948)
- The Well of the Worlds (1952)