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Slesar, Henry

Entry updated 18 November 2024. Tagged: Author.

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(1927-2002) US advertising copywriter and author born Henry Schlosser (he apparently changed his name legally) who began his career in advertising, in which role he is credited with inventing the phrase "coffee break", and who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Brat" for Imaginative Tales in September 1955. Of his several hundred stories, about a third were sf or fantasy, most of them appearing in his first decade as a writer. He used several pseudonyms, including O H Leslie, John Murray, Lee Saber and Jay Street; his House Names included Lawrence Chandler, E K Jarvis, Clyde Mitchell (twice only), Lee Saver and Gerald Vance. The Time Travel film Terror from the Year 5000 (1958; vt Cage of Doom), directed by Robert J Gurney Jr, was very loosely based on his story "Bottle Baby" (April 1957 Fantastic); other stories were adapted as segments of both series of The Twilight Zone (1959-1964; 1985-1987).

Slesar was best known for his work in the mystery field, with a number of thrillers from The Gray Flannel Shroud (1958), which won an Edgar Award, onwards. Among these was a borderline-sf tale, The Bridge of Lions (1963); closely connected to this kind of work was his stint as head writer for the US daytime suspense serial, The Edge of Night, in the late 1950s and 1960s. Other television work included 24 segments for Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1961) (see Alfred Hitchcock), The Virtue Affair for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1965, and at least 100 additional scripts, many of them fantasy or sf. His one sf book was 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), novelizing 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) and published as #1 in the abortive Amazing Stories Science Fiction Novel series. [JC/PN]

see also: Psi Powers.

Henry Slesar

born New York: 12 June 1927

died New York: 2 April 2002

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