Editing Algis Budrys

{{short description|Lithuanian-American author, editor, and critic (1931–2008)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Algis Budrys
| image = Algis Budrys 1985.jpg
| caption = Budrys in 1985
| birth_date = January 9, 1931
| birth_place = [[Königsberg]], [[East Prussia]], [[Weimar Republic|German Reich]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|6|9|1931|1|9}}
| death_place = [[Evanston, Illinois]], U.S.
| occupation = {{flatlist|
* Novelist
* [[short story]] writer
* [[copy editing|editor]]
* critic
}}
| alma_mater = [[University of Miami]]<br />[[Columbia University]]
| genre = Science fiction
| movement =
| notableworks = ''[[The Falling Torch]]'', ''[[Rogue Moon]]'', ''[[Who? (novel)|Who?]]''
| religion =
| spouse = Edna Duna
| children = 4
| relatives = [[Jonas Budrys]] (father)
}}
[[File:Dynamic science fiction 195310.jpg|thumb|Budrys's "Snail's Pace" was the cover story in the October 1953 issue of ''[[Dynamic Science Fiction]]''.]]
[[File:Fantastic universe 195411.jpg|thumb|Budrys's novelette "Shadow on the Stars" was cover-featured on the November 1954 issue of ''[[Fantastic Universe]]''.]]
[[File:Planet stories 1955spr.jpg|thumb|Budrys's short story "Cage of a Thousand Wings" was the cover feature in the penultimate issue of ''[[Planet Stories]]'' in 1955.]]
[[File:If 195506.jpg|thumb|Budrys's novelette "The Strangers" was the cover story for the June 1955 issue of ''[[If (magazine)|If]]''.]]
[[File:Science fiction quarterly 195602.jpg|thumb|Budrys's novelette "Why Should I Stop?" was featured on the cover of the February 1956 issue of ''[[Science Fiction Quarterly]]''.]]
[[File:Fantastic 195712.jpg|thumb|Budrys wrote "Resurrection on Fifth Avenue" for ''Fantastic'' under his pseudonym "Gordon Jaulyn".]]

'''Algirdas Jonas''' "'''Algis'''" '''Budrys''' (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American [[science fiction]] author, [[copy editing|editor]] and critic. He was also known under the [[pen name]]s '''Frank Mason''', '''Alger Rome''' in collaboration with [[Jerome Bixby]], '''John A. Sentry''', '''William Scarff''' and '''Paul Janvier'''.  In the 1990s he was the publisher and editor of the science fiction magazine ''[[Tomorrow Speculative Fiction]]''.

==Biography==
===Early life and education===
Budrys was born in [[Königsberg]], [[German Empire|Germany]] (present-day [[Kaliningrad]], [[Russia]]). His father [[Jonas Budrys]] was the [[Consul (representative)#Consular rank|consul general]] of [[Lithuania]]. In 1936, when Budrys was five years old, Jonas was appointed as the consul general in New York City.<ref>{{cite web |last=Clute |first=John |title=Obituaries Algis Budrys: Science-fiction writer and editor |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/algis-budrys-sciencefiction-writer-and-editor-846966.html |website=The Independent |date=October 23, 2011 |access-date=April 13, 2015}}</ref><ref name="pontin20081020">{{cite magazine |last=Pontin |first=Mark Williams |date=November–December 2008 |title=The Alien Novelist |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/s/411039/the-alien-novelist/ |magazine=MIT Technology Review}}</ref> 

After the [[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|Soviet Union's occupation of Lithuania]] in 1940, Budrys helped his family run a chicken farm in [[New Jersey]]{{r|pontin20081020}} while his father was part of the exiled [[Lithuanian Diplomatic Service]], since the United States continued to recognize the pre-[[World War II]] Lithuanian diplomats.

Budrys was educated at the [[University of Miami]] and later at [[Columbia University]] in New York City.

===Career===
Incorporating his family's experience, Budrys's fiction depicts isolated and damaged people and themes of identity, survival and legacy. He taught himself English at the age of six by reading ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]''. From ''[[Flash Gordon]]'' comic strips, Budrys read [[H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[The Time Machine]]''; ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Astounding Science Fiction]]'' caused him at the age of 11 to want to become a science fiction writer.{{r|pontin20081020}}  His first published science fiction story was "The High Purpose", which appeared in ''Astounding'' in 1952.  

In 1952, Budrys worked as editor and manager for such science fiction publishers as [[Gnome Press]] and [[Galaxy Science Fiction]]. Some of Budrys's science fiction in the 1950s was published under the pen name "John A. Sentry", a reconfigured Anglification of his Lithuanian name. Among his other pseudonyms in the SF magazines of the 1950s and elsewhere, several revived as bylines for vignettes in his magazine ''[[Tomorrow Speculative Fiction]]'', is "William Scarff". Budrys also wrote several stories under the names "Ivan Janvier" or "Paul Janvier", and used "Alger Rome" in his collaborations with [[Jerome Bixby]].

Budrys's 1960 novella ''Rogue Moon'' was nominated for a [[Hugo Award]] and was later anthologized in ''[[The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two]]'' (1973). His [[Cold War]] science fiction novel ''[[Who? (novel)|Who?]]'' was adapted for the screen in 1973. In addition to numerous [[Hugo Award]] and [[Nebula Award]] nominations, Budrys won the [[Science Fiction Research Association]]'s 2007 [[Pilgrim Award]] for lifetime contributions to [[speculative fiction]] scholarship. In 2009, he was the posthumous recipient of one of the first three Solstice Awards presented by the [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America|SFWA]] in recognition of his contributions to the field of science fiction.<ref>{{cite book | title = Nebula Awards Ceremony 2009 | publisher = SFWA | year = 2009 | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = 13}}</ref>

Having published about 100 stories and a half-dozen novels, with a wife and children to support, after 1960 Budrys wrote less fiction and worked in publishing, editing and advertising. He became better known as among science fiction's best critics than as writer,{{r|pontin20081020}} reviewing for ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]''<ref name="Pohl">{{Cite web | last = Pohl | first = Frederik. | author-link = Frederik Pohl | title = Robert A. Heinlein, Algis Budrys and me | work = The Way the Future Blogs | date = May 12, 2010 | url = http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/05/robert-a-heinlein-algis-budrys-and-me/ | access-date = August 1, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100815040048/http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/05/robert-a-heinlein-algis-budrys-and-me/ | archive-date = August 15, 2010 | url-status = dead }}</ref> and ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'', a book editor for ''[[Playboy]]'', a longtime teacher at the [[Clarion Writers Workshop]] and an organizer and judge for the [[Writers of the Future|L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future]] contest.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About the Contest |url=https://writersofthefuture.com/about-the-contest/ |access-date=October 11, 2024 |website=Writers & Illustrators of the Future |language=en-US}}</ref> 

Budrys also worked as a publicist; in a famous [[publicity stunt]], he erected a giant pickle on the proposed site of the [[Chicago Picasso]] during the time the newly arriving sculpture was embroiled in controversy.<ref name="zeldes">{{Cite web | last = Zeldes | first = Leah A. | author-link = Leah A. Zeldes | title = The Picasso put Chicago in a pickle | work = Dining Chicago | publisher = Chicago's Restaurant & Entertainment Guide, Inc. | date = July 26, 2010 | url = http://www.diningchicago.com/blog/2010/07/26/the-picasso-put-chicago-in-a-pickle/ | access-date = August 1, 2010 | archive-date = November 27, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111127040446/http://www.diningchicago.com/blog/2010/07/26/the-picasso-put-chicago-in-a-pickle/ | url-status = dead }}</ref>

===Death===
He last resided in [[Evanston, Illinois]], where he died from [[metastatic]] [[malignant melanoma]] on June 9, 2008, at age 77.<ref name="Trib">{{cite news |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/wednesday/metro/chi-hed-budrys-11-jun11,0,1972869.story |title=Tapped human side of science fiction |last=Jensen |first=Trevor |date=June 11, 2008 |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=June 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612133144/http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/wednesday/metro/chi-hed-budrys-11-jun11%2C0%2C1972869.story |archive-date=June 12, 2008 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

==Bibliography ==
=== Novels ===
*''False Night'' (1954)
*''[[Man of Earth]]'' (1956)
*''[[Who? (novel)|Who?]]'' (1958)
*''[[The Falling Torch]]'' (1959)
*''[[Rogue Moon]]'' (1960)
*''Some Will Not Die'' (1961) (an expanded and restored version of ''False Night'')
*''The Iron Thorn'' (1967) (as serialized in ''[[If (magazine)|If]]''; revised and published in book form as ''The Amsirs and the Iron Thorn'').  On a bleak forbidding planet, humans hunt Amsirs – flightless humanoid birds – and vice versa.  After one young hunter makes his first kill, he is initiated into the society's secrets.  Still, he figures there are secrets the human race has forgotten altogether, and begins to hunt for answers.
*''[[Michaelmas (novel)|Michaelmas]]'' (1977)
*''Hard Landing'' (1993)
*''The Death Machine'' (2001) (originally published as ''Rogue Moon'' against Budrys's wishes)

===Collections (fiction, essays, and mixed)===
* ''The Unexpected Dimension'' (1960)
* ''Budrys' Inferno'' (1963)
* ''The Furious Future'' (1963)
* ''Blood and Burning'' (1978)
* ''Benchmarks: Galaxy Bookshelf'' (1985)
* ''Writing to the Point'' (1994)
* ''Outposts: Literatures of Milieux'' (1996)
* ''Entertainment'' (1997)
* ''The Electric Gene Machine'' (2000)
* ''Benchmarks Continued: F&SF "Books" Columns 1975-1982'' (2012)
* ''Benchmarks Revisited: F&SF "Books" Columns 1983-1986'' (2013)
* ''Benchmarks Concluded: F&SF "Books" Columns 1987-1993'' (2013)

===Short stories===
* "The High Purpose" (1952) in ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Astounding Science Fiction]]''
* "Walk to the World" (1952) in ''[[John Raymond science fiction magazines|Space Science Fiction]]'', Nov 1952
* "The Congruent People" (1953) in ''Star Science Fiction Stories'' No. 2 (edited by [[Frederik Pohl]]), 1953
* "[https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1953-02/Galaxy_1953_02#page/n37/mode/2up Protective Mimicry]" in ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', 1953.
* "Riya's Foundling" (1953) in ''[[Future Science Fiction and Science Fiction Stories|Science Fiction Stories]]'', 1953.
* "The End of Summer" (1954) in ''Astounding Science Fiction''; also published in the short story anthology ''Penguin Science Fiction'' (edited by [[Brian Aldiss]], 1961).
* "[https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1954-03/Galaxy_1954_03#page/n77/mode/2up Ironclad]" in ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', 1954.
* "Citadel" (1955) in ''Astounding Science Fiction'', February 1955.
* "[[Nobody Bothers Gus]]" (1955) published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'', November 1955.
* "Calculated Decision" in ''[[Science Fiction Quarterly]]'', November 1956.
* "The War is Over" (1957) first appeared in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' Feb. 1957. Also published in the short story anthology ''[[13 Great Stories of Science Fiction]]'' (edited by [[Groff Conklin]], 1960).
* "The Barbarians" (1958) (as John Sentry) in ''[[If (magazine)|If]]'', February 1958.
* "The Stoker and the Stars" (1959) (as John A. Sentry) in ''Astounding Science Fiction'', February 1959.
* "The Price" (1960) — first appeared in ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'', February 1960. Also published in the short story anthology ''The War Book'' (edited by [[James Sallis]], 1969).
* "Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night" in ''Galaxy'', December 1961
* "For Love" (originally published in ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', June 1962) — appears in ''The Seventh Galaxy Reader'' edited by [[Frederik Pohl]] (Doubleday Science Fiction, 1964).
* " Die, Shadow!" in ''If'', May 1963.
* "Be Merry" (1966) published in ''[[If (magazine)|If]]'', December 1966, Vol. 16, No. 12, Issue 109.
* "The Master of the Hounds" (1966) first published in ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' and an [[Edgar Awards|Edgar Award]] nominee.

===Audio recording===
* ''84.2 Minutes of Algis Budrys'' (1995), Unifont (Budrys's own company). Released on cassette, this featured Budrys reading his short stories "The Price", "The Distant Sound of Engines", "Never Meet Again", and "Explosions!".

===Interviews===
* ''Taking Your Chances'' (1990) in [[Leading Edge (fiction magazine)|Leading Edge]] #20/21<ref name="locus-algis">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.locusmag.com/index/s105.htm#A2042 |title=Stories, Listed by Author |magazine=[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]] |access-date=February 24, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100221224711/http://www.locusmag.com/index/s105.htm |archive-date=February 21, 2010 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

===Magazine===
* ''[[Tomorrow Speculative Fiction]]'' (1993–2000); initially edited by Budrys and published by [[Pulphouse Publishing]], with its second issue it was published and edited by Budrys with assistance from [[Kandis Elliott]] under the Unifont rubric.  It ceased publication as a paper and ink magazine and became a webzine late in the decade.  Nine of the 24 print issues contained a story by Budrys, almost always under one of his pseudonyms.

===Anthologies===
* ''L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol. III'' (1987)
* ''L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol. 6'' (1990)
* ''L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol 12'' (1996)
* ''L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Vol. 16'' (2000)
* ''L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol 19'' (2003)

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Williams |first=Mark |date=November–December 2008 |title=The Alien Novelist |url=https://archive.org/details/MIT-Technology-Review-2008-11/page/n81/mode/2up |url-access=registration |department=Reviews |magazine=Technology Review |volume=111 |issue=6 |pages=80–84}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/algis-budrys}}
* {{Gutenberg author |name=Algis Budrys}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Algis Budrys}}
* {{Librivox author}}
* {{ISFDB name |name=Algis Budrys}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010722090814/http://scifan.com/writers/bb/BudrysJAlgirdas.asp Bibliography] in SciFan
* [http://www.alamo-sf.org/lonestarcon2/budrys.html Brief autobiography]
* [http://www.sfsite.com/08a/alg14.htm Interview with Algis Budrys]
* {{IMDb name |name=Algis Budrys}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140313145913/http://www.loa.org/sciencefiction/biographies/budrys.jsp Algis Budrys] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20120719160133/http://www.loa.org/sciencefiction/ American Science Fiction: Classic Novels of the 1950s]—includes original story version of "Who?" and an essay on ''Who?'' by [[Tim Powers]], as well as an interview, images, cover art, and audio files
* [[Frederik Pohl]] on Budrys: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100728135046/http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/07/algis-budrys/ Part One], [https://web.archive.org/web/20100731030423/http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/07/algis-budrys-2/ Part Two]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Budrys, Algis}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:2008 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
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[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
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[[Category:Columbia University alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Illinois]]
[[Category:Deaths from melanoma in the United States]]
[[Category:Lithuanian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Lithuanian expatriates in Germany]]
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[[Category:University of Miami alumni]]
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