Anderson, Chester
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1932-1991) US author and poet, member of the Beat Generation, editor of underground journals on both coasts, and of Paul Williams's Crawdaddy, a rock'n'roll magazine (1968-1969); he wrote poetry as c v j anderson. His most straightforward sf was written in association with Michael Kurland, Ten Years to Doomsday (1964), a straight collaboration, being a lightly written Invasion tale with a good deal of activity in space and on other planets. The Butterfly Kid (1967) was written by Chester Anderson alone, but stands as the first volume of the comically surrealistic Greenwich Village Shared-World trilogy (see New York), the second instalment being The Unicorn Girl (1969) by Kurland and the third The Probability Pad (1970) by T A Waters. The trilogy stars all three authors (see Recursive SF), who become involved in the attempts of a pop group to fight off a more than merely psychedelic Alien invasion menace: Greenwich Village is being threatened by the distribution of a "Reality Pill" (see Drugs) which actualizes people's fantasies. Anderson's contribution, with its joky, slightly gonzo melancholy, was probably the most memorable of the three. [JC]
see also: Perception; Torture; Urban Legends.
Chester Valentine John Anderson
born Stoneham, Massachusetts: 11 August 1932
died Baldwin, Georgia: 11 April 1991
works
- Ten Years to Doomsday (New York: Pyramid Books, 1964) with Michael Kurland [pb/Ed Emshwiller]
- The Butterfly Kid (New York: Pyramid Books, 1967) [pb/Gray Morrow]
- Fox & Hare (Glen Ellen, California: Entwhistle Books, 1980) [hb/Charles Stevenson]
links
previous versions of this entry