Mark Rich finally published his biography of C.M. Kornbluth, with MacFarland. Incredibly well-researched book. I had no idea so much material was available on him. Bit of an ax-grinder against Fred Pohl, without ever really nailing down the case against him, and Rich doesn't fully grapple with the negative aspects of Kornbluth's character (even though he had conversations with Kornbluth's father and brother). Kornbluth's widow and children aren't tracked after his death with even a cursory mention of "where are they now". But as an exploration of his life, Rich has provided all the groundwork anyone could ask for as a first major step into Kornbluth. Well worth reading!

About all I know about Kornbluth, biographically, is that he was one of several Futurians with green teeth, that he died far too young, and that I will never shovel the snow from my walkway and then run to catch a bus.

Fairly or not --and I really haven't fully analyzed why I feel this way-- one of the interesting shocks to me from reading a fair chunk of RAH's correspondence was the discovery that he was a fairly serious Kornbluth fan, but felt it would have displeased Cyril to know that fact --and that Robert himself didn't seem to find it all inappropriate or unusual for Kornbluth to feel that way. It came up at Kornbluth's death when some of his friends were making a collection in the sf community to help his family financially.

Heinlein himself was the damnedest amalgamation of dreamer, pragmatist, and cynic --I suspect this gave him at times the ability to resonate sympathetically with the more purer personalities of all three types.

There are some Heinlein materials and issues raised in the bio, including the damndest letter Kornbluth wrote about meeting Heinlein in the late fifties.

Bill has my copy right now, but I will post said letter here when I get it back -- unless Bill does it first.

I put C. M. Kornbluth right behind RAH as my all-time favorite writer in the SF arena. I never knew of the behind the scenes stuff alluded to here, just that Kornbluth's approach in his stories appealed to me in a different vein from RAH's. It is a shame he was taken from us too early.

Seconded on all points, OJ. Kornbluth and Weinbaum wrote such brilliant stuff and were taken away far too early. I don't think I've read a story by either that I didn't like.

And let's face it, even a lot of the revered Golden Agers wrote a few stories in their early career that never saw the light of reprints... making these two even more of a brief treasure and a loss.