Dramocles: An Intergalactic Soap Opera

Robert Sheckley (1928-2005)
Robert Sheckley was a Hugo- and Nebula-nominated author born and educated in New York. He received an undergraduate degree from New York University in 1951 after a varied career that included time spent as a landscape gardener, a milkman and a stint in the US Army. He published his first story, "Final Examination" for Imagination in May 1952 and quickly gained prominence as a writer, publishing stories for Imagination, Galaxy and other science fiction magazines. His first four books - three collections and a previously serialised novel - were published in the 1950s and his career continued to be successful throughout the following decades. Sheckley served as fiction editor for Omni magazine from January 1980 through September 1981 and was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001. He passed away at the age of 77 before being able to attend the World SF Convention in Glasgow, where he'd been scheduled Guest of Honour.