Abernathy, Robert
Entry updated 13 January 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1924-1990) US teacher and author who began to publish his short fiction with "Heritage" for Astounding in June 1942, and whose work – about 40 stories overall – appeared regularly in the sf magazines until 1956. During the 1940s, his most consistent market was Planet Stories, for which he wrote such stories as "Peril of the Blue World" (Winter 1942 Planet Stories), "Saboteur of Space" (Spring 1944 Planet Stories) and "The Dead-Star Rover" (Winter 1949 Planet Stories); later work appeared primarily in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, though his two best-known stories – "Pyramid" (July 1954 Astounding) and "Junior" (January 1956 Galaxy) – were published elsewhere. Abernathy was a reliable, respectable short-story writer who did not manage the transition from magazine to book publication during his active years, and who may have been indifferent to publication subsequently. A linguistic scholar specializing in Slavic languages, he remained a professor at the University of Colorado until his retirement. [MJE/JC]
see also: Cities.
Robert Harwood Abernathy
born Tucson, Arizona: 6 June 1924
died Tucson, Arizona: 6 April 1990
works
- World of the Drone (place not given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared January 1955 Imagination: na/]
- When the Mountain Shook (place not given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared March 1954 If: na/]
- The Ultimate Peril (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2012) [dos: first appeared March 1950 Amazing Stories: pb/R G Jones]
about the author
- Paul Brians. Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1895-1984 (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1987) [nonfiction: pp104-105: hb/Eric Donelan]
links
previous versions of this entry