Theodore R. Cogswell

Theodore R. Cogswell (1918-1987) was an American science fiction author born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Before turning to writing, he drove ambulances for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War and served as an Air Corps cargo pilot during the Second World War. Cogswell wrote roughly forty stories over his career, most with a distinctly humorous or satirical edge; his best-known work, the novella The Spectre General (1952), was selected for The Science Fiction Hall of Fame as one of the genre's classic novellas. He also co-wrote Spock, Messiah! (1976), one of the earliest original Star Trek tie-in novels, and edited the fan-and-professional newsletter Proceedings of the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies. His short fiction was collected in The Wall Around the World and The Third Eye. Cogswell died in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1987.