William Tenn, who’s real name was Philip Klass, was known for his satirical short stories and as a professor at Penn State where he taught writing and science fiction literature. Klass was born in London and came to the U.S. when he was two years old. He served in the army during WWII as a combat engineer and was discharged in 1945. His first story “Alexander the Bait” was published in 1946.
He had a love-hate relationship with science fiction and didn’t enjoy the notoriety of his contemporaries. He published two novels but it was his short stories published between 1946 and 1974 that he was best known for. His most acclaimed stories were “Child’s Play” (1947) about a man who builds people using a children’s Build-A-Man kit from the future and “On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi” (1974) about a Hebrew-speaking alien. His collection of essays, “Dancing Naked” was nominated for a Hugo award in 2005 for Best Non-Fiction Work.
His wife, Fruma Klass is also a writer who won a 2nd place in 1996 in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future competition and a Templeton prize for an essay on her family. They married in 1957. Philip Klass is survived by his wife, his daughter Adina Klass Lamana and a sister Frances Goldman-Levy. A memorial service will be held in the spring.
For more information on William Tenn see his obituary in the New York Times, on Frederik Pohl’s The Way the Future Blogs and The Official Homepage of Science Fiction Writer William Tenn.
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