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Pseudonym of German author, translator and editor Walter Ernsting (1920-2005); he also wrote as F MacPatterson. In the 1950s he edited the German Utopia-Magazin (launched 1955), providing it with much original and translated material, usually as Clark Darlton (English sf writers found it easier to publish in German than did German writers; for some time Ernsting sold his stories as translations from the Clark Darlton originals); his first sf publication, Ufo am Nachthimmel ["UFO in the Night Heavens"] (1955) as by Clark Darlton, was the first of many. In 1957 he began a series of sf publications, Terra-Sonderband, and was one of the founding editors and writers, with K.-H. Scheer, of the Perry Rhodan series of Space Operas from 1961. Nearly 2500 of these short novels had appeared, on a weekly basis, by mid-2007; a slightly expurgated series of English-language translations began with Unternehnen Stardust (1961; trans as Enterprise Stardust 1969) by K H Scheer and continued through 141 further instalments. In his later career, Ernsting concentrated almost exclusively on Perry Rhodan Ties, writing about 300 of them [see Checklist for translated titles; see Perry Rhodan for wider coverage]. [JC/PN]
see also: Germany.
born Coblentz, Germany: 13 June 1920
died 15 January 2005
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Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 14:53 pm on 15 March 2026.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/darlton_clark>