Poul ANDERSON was born November 25, 1926, in Bristol, Pennsylvania, of Scandinavian parents.
Part of his youth was spent in Denmark. He returned to the United States before World War II, and he sold his first story while a student at the University of Minnesota. When he graduated.with distinction, in 1948, he decided to try to support himself for a time with his writing before seeking employment in his area of specialization, physics. That for a time is approaching twenty-five years with the end happily not in sight. In 1953 Anderson married Karen Kruse, herself an author of fiction and poetry. They have one daughter, Astrid. They make their home in Orinda, California.
Anderson’s dazzling versatility as a writer is reflected in James Blish’s description of him as “…the scientist, the technician, the stylist, the bard, the humanist and the humorist-a non-exhaustive list.” He ranks as one of the most prolific science fiction writers of all times (a recently compiled bibliography, published in the April 1971 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science fiction, fills seven pages!).
From poetry to novels to short stories to nonfiction books and articles on a variety of subjects, he brilliantly combines the saga and song of his Scandinavian heritage with the searching mind and speculative science of the scholar. He also finds time for such varied activities as houseboat building, sailing, mountain climbing, gardening, chess, poker, Science Fiction Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, and the Society for Creative Anachronism (where he is known as Bela of Eastmarch in its medieval tourneys)-another non-exhaustive list.
