Damon Francis Knight
pen names: Conanight, Stuart Fleming.
born Baker City, Oregon: 19 September 1922
died Eugene, Oregon: 15 April 2002
Damon Knight was an American science fiction author (primarily of short stories), editor, and critic. He was a member of the Futurians SF fan group, about whom he wrote a non-fiction book.
Knight’s first sale was a cartoon drawing, but his first story, The Itching Hour (1940), appeared in Ray Bradbury’s Futuria Fantasia.
He is the author of the short story, To Serve Man (1950) that was adapted for The Twilight Zone.
His output of SF short stories during the 1950’s and ‘60’s was phenomenal.
He is another author whose work frequently appears in answers to queries within the SFF Chronicles Book Search forum.
He is also known for his reviews of SF stories. The term ‘idiot plot’, for a story that can only work because everyone in the story is a complete idiot, was popularised through Knight's frequent use of it in his reviews, although he credited James Blish with its invention.
Most of his novels were expanded from short stories and he found problems with adapting to writing longer works. Later in his life he produced Monad: Essays on Science Fiction for SF writers to "criticize it from the inside", in contrast to the "fans and academics" who "sometimes publish very foolish things", but it only ran for 3 issues.
His third marriage was to fellow writer Kate Wilhelm.
A list of his works is to be found here: Summary Bibliography: Damon Knight
Wikipedia page: Damon Knight - Wikipedia
pen names: Conanight, Stuart Fleming.
born Baker City, Oregon: 19 September 1922
died Eugene, Oregon: 15 April 2002
Damon Knight was an American science fiction author (primarily of short stories), editor, and critic. He was a member of the Futurians SF fan group, about whom he wrote a non-fiction book.
Knight’s first sale was a cartoon drawing, but his first story, The Itching Hour (1940), appeared in Ray Bradbury’s Futuria Fantasia.
He is the author of the short story, To Serve Man (1950) that was adapted for The Twilight Zone.
His output of SF short stories during the 1950’s and ‘60’s was phenomenal.
He is another author whose work frequently appears in answers to queries within the SFF Chronicles Book Search forum.
He is also known for his reviews of SF stories. The term ‘idiot plot’, for a story that can only work because everyone in the story is a complete idiot, was popularised through Knight's frequent use of it in his reviews, although he credited James Blish with its invention.
Most of his novels were expanded from short stories and he found problems with adapting to writing longer works. Later in his life he produced Monad: Essays on Science Fiction for SF writers to "criticize it from the inside", in contrast to the "fans and academics" who "sometimes publish very foolish things", but it only ran for 3 issues.
His third marriage was to fellow writer Kate Wilhelm.
A list of his works is to be found here: Summary Bibliography: Damon Knight
Wikipedia page: Damon Knight - Wikipedia
