About the Author
Henry Kuttner (l9l4-l958) both alone and in collaboration with his wife C.L. Moore (l9ll-l987) was one of the most important and admired writers of science fiction's so-called "Golden Age" identified with John W. Campbell's ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION. Although his first published story, THE GRAVEYARD RATS (in WEIRD TALES) was category horror and a careful imitation of the work of H.P. Lovecraft, it is often anthologized. Subsequent l930's stories, published in the lesser pulp magazines were not, however, generally admired. But Kuttner after his marriage to the much more highly regarded C. L.Moore in l940, began to write at an entirely different level of quality. His brilliant short stories and novelettes published in ASTOUNDING, most of them under the collaborative pseudonyms "Lawrence O'Donnell" and "Lewis Padgett" were highly regarded and have been much reprinted over the many decades. FURY was originally published under the O'Donnell pseudonym and according to Moore (in an introduction to a l970 edition) was preponderantly Kuttner's work. Kuttner and Moore turned from writing to academic pursuits in the early l950's, both of them earning degrees in psychology at USC and Kuttner was in a graduate program in psychology when he died suddenly in l958. A scattering of late short stories - RITE OF PASSAGE, TWO-HANDED ENGINES, HOME THERE'S NO RETURNING - showed no diminution in his abilities.