Altov, Genrikh
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Critic.
Pseudonym of Russian author and sf critic Genrikh Altshuller (1926-1998); a trained engineer, he registered dozens of patents, and is most widely known for establishing the Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadach (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) or TRIZ. He spent four years in a prison camp for political dissidents after writing a scathing letter to Stalin criticizing the lack of industrial and scientific inventiveness in the USSR. His unpublished "Altov's Register" is a mammoth catalogue of sf ideas, topics and situations. His three collections of sf stories, some written with his wife Valentina Zhuravlyova (1933-2004) – Legendy O Zviozdnykh Kapitanakh ["Legends of the Star Captains"] (1961), Opaliaiuschii Razum ["The Scorching Mind"] (1968) and Sozdan Dlia Buri ["Created for the Storm"] (1970) – represent the best of the Soviet style of brainstorming Hard SF. Some of these tales were assembled in Ballad of the Stars (trans Roger DeGaris 1982) with Zhuravlyova. [VG/MY]
Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller
born Tashkent, USSR: 14 October 1926
died Petrozavodsk, Russia: 24 September 1998
works
- Legendy O Zviozdnykh Kapitanakh ["Legends of the Star Captains"] (Moscow: Detgiz, 1961) [coll: hb/]
- Opaliaiuschii Razum ["The Scorching Mind"] (no publisher discovered: 1968) [binding unknown/]
- Sozdan Dlia Buri ["Created for Thunder"] (Moscow: Detskaia Literatura, 1970) [hb/]
- Ballad of the Stars (New York: Macmillan, 1982) with Valentina Zhuravlyova [coll: trans by Roger DeGaris of various texts: hb/Richard Powers]
links
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