Who's the most underrated Vintage SF writer?

[The Time Traveller]

We've all have our favorite SF authors and some of them might be quite famous. Some may have been famous and now have fallen from grace.
And others may never have been on top of the best SF authors, ever. Who do you think is nearly forgotten and should be immortalized, or at least given their due. I'm thinking of authors that 98% of today SF readers may never have known of. My vote to get things rolling is Henry Kuttner (with wife C.L. Moore, for they often collaborated under the Lewis Padgett). He was both prolific and a quality writer.

[Foxbat]

Don't know if he can be classed as vintage but - Michael Bishop. I only know of one book that he wrote (No Enemy But Time) but I thought it was excellent. Never seem to hear anything about him so he gets my vote.

[Tritonian]

i like ben bova, anybody heard of him?

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by The Time Traveller

...thinking of authors that 98% of today SF readers may never have known of. My vote to get things rolling is Henry Kuttner (with wife C.L. Moore, for they often collaborated under the Lewis Padgett). He was both prolific and a quality writer.

Interesting choice TT, I've got a piece on Kuttner over on my Forgotten Fantasy Works stories thread in the General Books Discussion subforum...

I agree Kuttner is certainly a worthy choice, although I'm looking at him more from the point of view of his lesser known S&S work, mainly Elak Of Atlantis.

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Don't know if he can be classed as vintage but - Michael Bishop. I only know of one book that he wrote (No Enemy But Time) but I thought it was excellent. Never seem to hear anything about him so he gets my vote.

What a great book No Enemy But Time is. I read that a long time ago and recall that it was something that I just couldn't put down.

[Teresa Edgerton]

There's a C. L. Moore thread, Time Traveller:

http://www.chronicles-network.com/fo...c-l-moore.html

We never really got the conversation rolling. You might be able to nudge it back into a little sluggish activity if you posted something there about the Kuttner/Moore collaborations.

[GOLLUM]

You're right Kelpie, think I might add something new myself in the next week or so to that CL Moore thread plus as I'm plowing through the entire collected written works of Clark Ashton Smith I might be able to add something further to him when I can dig up the relevant post.

[merritt]

Olaf Stapledon - hands down the most influential, almost unknown now (to the general public, present company excluded).
Noted for "Last & First Men" but "The Starmaker" was a more mature masterpiece, yes, I said masterpiece.
also of note "Sirius" extremely touching, human love story.
also we can't forget "Odd John".
read "Odd John" first, then "Sirius" then "The Starmaker"

http://members.tripod.com/templetongate/stapledon.htm

JMHO
M

[Symbolt]

James Tiptree Jr

[flynx]

Algys Budrys gets my vote most particularly for "Who?" which they made a v.poor film about.

[Nokia]

I have to nominate Brian Aldiss. I read a colleciton of short stories by him, "Galaxies like Grains of Sand" and it was fantastic. I don't usually like short stories at all but every single one of his I read seemed original, unpredictable and with interesting (if not always likeable!) characters.

[edott]

I really don't think that H. beam Piper has ever gotten the respect that he deserves.

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by Nokia

I have to nominate Brian Aldiss. I read a colleciton of short stories by him, "Galaxies like Grains of Sand" and it was fantastic. I don't usually like short stories at all but every single one of his I read seemed original, unpredictable and with interesting (if not always likeable!) characters.

Oh, surely not Brian Aldiss. Not that he's not good, but he's had critical aclaim since he was a pillar of the Sci-Fi antiestablishment in the early sixties. Stapleton has been somewhat forgotten, true, but was very rated in his time. So, remembering back to books from my youth I came up with "Mary's country" by Harold Mead. "Who?" I hear you say.
This book had such a grey, depressing happy ending (which was right for the story) it left you feeling that, if this is the best we can expect, might as well commit suicide right away. It marked me for months at the time, and I remember it clearly over fourty years later. Yet neither he or another Mead, with whom I temporarily confused him (Shepard Mead, big ball of wax) appear in the "Fantastic Fiction" author listing, Googling him got me some rare book merchants and:-Legal Name: Mead, Harold Charles Hugh
* Birthplace: UK
* Birthdate: 25 September 1910
Shortfiction

* The Bright Phoenix (1955)
* Mary's Country (1957)

From a website I'd never heard of (and has now gone onto my "interesting" list.
For me, that's underrated.

[Nokia]

Originally Posted by chrispenycate

Oh, surely not Brian Aldiss. Not that he's not good, but he's had critical aclaim since he was a pillar of the Sci-Fi antiestablishment in the early sixties.

I was surprised to have not heard of him before I picked up the book, but that would be explained by the fact that I wasn't reading in the sixties. I wasn't anything in sixties! But thanks for clearing that up.

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by Nokia

I was surprised to have not heard of him before I picked up the book, but that would be explained by the fact that I wasn't reading in the sixties. I wasn't anything in sixties! But thanks for clearing that up.

Well, he's still writing, and publishing. His website (I googled him, very easy) said " With close to one hundred books to his credit, Brian Aldiss is one of the most prolific British writers ever." and there were several that I hadn't read (books, that is, not writers, though them too)(so you've got some reading to do) However, when I saw him last year at the Glasgow Worldcon, he'd forgotten having met me before (in 1966) so perhaps his memory isn't quite what it was; there again, on our previous meeting there was a fair amount of alcohol involved, so he probably wouldn't have remembered me the following day.