Fyfe, H B
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1918-1997) US author whose first sf story, "Locked Out", appeared in Astounding in February 1940, but who became fully active, mainly with further stories in Astounding though with appearances in most other SF Magazines, only after army service in World War Two. By 1967, when he became inactive, he had published nearly 60 stories. His five Bureau of Slick Tricks tales, beginning with "Bureau of Slick Tricks" (December 1948 Astounding) and continuing in Astounding to March 1952, are typical of John W Campbell Jr's fondness for stories in which humans deftly outwit thick-skulled (often bureaucratic) Aliens; here the BST, officially the Bureau of Special Trading, specializes in leveraging Terra's position as a hub of interstellar trade to keep aliens happy and trading via Terran-controlled space. In Fyfe's thematically similar novel, D-99 (fixup 1962), Department 99 of the Terran government has the job of finagling citizens out of jams on other planets when conventional diplomatic approaches have failed, and generally flummoxing thicker species. The tone is fortunately light. [JC/DRL]
Horace Brown Fyfe
born Jersey City, New Jersey: 30 September 1918
died Teaneck, New Jersey: 17 November 1997
works
collections and stories
- Exile (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2007) [story: ebook: first appeared February 1953 Space Science Fiction: na/]
- The Talkative Tree (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2007) [story: ebook: first appeared January 1962 If: na/]
- A Transmutation of Muddles (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2008) [story: ebook: first appeared September 1960 Astounding: na/]
- Flamedown (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2009) [story: ebook: first appeared August 1961 Analog: na/]
- The Outbreak of Peace (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2009) [story: ebook: first appeared February 1961 Analog: na/]
- Satellite System (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2009) [story: ebook: first appeared October 1960 Analog: na/]
- Irresistible Weapon (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2009) [story: ebook: first appeared July 1953 If: na/]
- Fee of the Frontier (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared August 1960 Amazing: na/]
- The Wedge (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared September 1960 If: na/]
- Let There Be Light (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared November 1952 If: na/]
- The Envoy, Her (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared March 1951 Planet Stories: na/]
- Manners of the Age (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared March 1952 Galaxy: na/]
- H B Fyfe Resurrected: The Works of Horace Brown Fyfe (Madison, Wisconsin: Resurrected Press, 2010) [coll: pb/]
- Anthology of Sci-Fi V7: The Pulp Writers: Horace Bowne Fyfe (no place given, USA: Spastic Cat Press, 2013) [coll: pb/]
links
previous versions of this entry