Science fiction author William Tenn (real name Philip Klass) died today at the age of 89, according to a note posted on his Web page. While not widely known outside the field, within sf he was highly respected for his dark, penetrating satire, much of it written in the Golden Age of 1940-60. In 1999, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) named him an Author Emeritus.

I have always liked Tenn's stories — my curiosity was first hooked by "Down Among the Dead Men," a grim little tale about reanimated corpses used as soldiers in a space war. I was very much looking forward to seeing him at the 2004 Worldcon in Boston, but that was the weekend my mother passed away.

Scott Edelman has a remembrance and link to a radio interview on WNYC. Tangent Online has an interview. Blogger Matthew Cheney has a nice piece on Tenn's fiction.

You can read about Tenn on Wikipedia. Tenn's collected fiction and nonfiction has been reprinted by the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) Press. Here's a link to Amazon.

My thoughts are with his family and friends.