Science Fiction Author and Scholar, James E. Gunn, Dies at 97

 

Hugo Award winner James E. Gunn is dead.

According to THR, the golden age science fiction author and scholar died of natural causes Wednesday morning in Lawrence, Kansas, where for decades he taught at the University of Kansas.

This was confirmed by a university spokesperson confirmed to the outlet.

A bit about him:

Gunn launched his career writing short stories for pulp magazines in 1949 and went on to author dozens of books, starting with 1955’s Star Bridge. He saw his 1962 short story “The Immortals,” about a group who discovers the secret to immortality, made into an ABC TV movie of the week in 1969 and become an hour-long series in 1970-71.

In addition to fiction, Gunn was known as an editor of anthologies and an author of academic works. He earned a Hugo Award for 1983’s Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction, an exploration of famed author Isaac Asimov’s contributions to the science fiction genre.

James E. Gunn was born in Kansas City, Mo. in 1923. As a youth, he caught a 1937 talk given by H.G. Wells in Kansas City. Decades later, Gunn would honor the writer by titling his 2017 memoir, Star-Begotten: A Life Lived in Science Fiction, after one of Wells’ novels.

He was 97.