Comprehensive information and links about Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon in Staten Island, New York. In 1929, after a divorce, his mother married William Sturgeon, and Edward changed his name to Theodore the better to match his nickname, "Ted".

He sold his first story in 1938 to the newspaper McClure's Syndicate which bought much of his early work (non-fantastic); his first genre appearance was a year later. At first he wrote mainly short stories, primarily for the science fiction magazines such as . He is known to have used the pen name "E. Waldo Hunter" when two of his stories ran in the same issue of "Fantastic Adventures, August 1951, featuring the Sturgeon story "Excalibur and the Atom" (cover art by Robert Gibson Jones)." , August 1951, featuring the Sturgeon story "Excalibur and the Atom" (cover art by Robert Gibson Jones).

Many of Sturgeon's works have a poetic, even an elegiac, quality. He was known to use a technique known as "rhythmic prose", in which his prose text would drop into a standard meter. This has the effect of creating a subtle shift in mood, usually without alerting the reader to its cause.

Sturgeon wrote the screenplays for the episodes "Shore Leave" (1966) and "Amok Time" (1967, later published in book form in 1978). The latter is known for his invention of the Pon farr, the Vulcan mating ritual. Sturgeon also wrote several episodes of that were never produced. One of these was notable for having first introduced the Prime Directive. He also wrote an episode of the Saturday morning show , "The Pylon Express", in 1975.

Although Sturgeon is well known among readers of classic science-fiction anthologies (at the of his popularity in the 1950s he was the most anthologized author alive) and much respected by critics (John Clute writes in the : "His influence upon writers like Harlan Ellison and Samuel R. Delany was seminal, and in his life and work he was a powerful and generally liberating influence in post-WWII US sf"), he is not much known among the general public and won comparatively few awards (though it must be noted that his best work was published before the establishment and consolidation of the leading genre awards, while his later production was scarcer and weaker). He was listed as a primary influence of the much more famous Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Kurt Vonnegut has stated that his character Kilgore Trout was based on Theodore Sturgeon.

Sturgeon's Law is: "Nothing is always absolutely so."

There is also Sturgeon's Revelation: "Ninety percent of everything is crud." Note that Sturgeon's Revelation is also commonly called "Sturgeon's Law."

Corollary 1: "The existence of immense quantities of trash in science fiction is admitted and is regrettable; but it is no more unnatural than the existence of trash anywhere."

Corollary 2: "The best science fiction is as good as the best fiction in any field."

Two of Sturgeon's stories were adapted for the television program, The New Twilight Zone. One,

He was better known for his short stories. A sampling of Sturgeon short stories and novellas follows:

"Minority Report" (June, 1949, no connection to the 2002 movie, which was based on a different story by Philip K. Dick)