Pohl’s finest novels, by common consent, was “Gateway” (1977), which won the Nebula and Hugo awards. woven deftly into an intricate plot pure adventure happening to believable (if not deeply drawn) characters in surroundings almost beyond the borders of imagination.” “Riddles posed, examined and solved basic human problems.

“Pohl’s work offers science fiction at its best,” Washington Post arts critic Joseph McLellan wrote in 1980. “The Space Merchants” has never been out of print and is often cited as an influence on Philip K. “They invented and played with ‘Sociological SF’ - alternate futures here on Earth, exaggerating and satirizing real-life social forces and trends,” author and critic Charles Platt wrote in “Dream Makers: The Uncommon People Who Write Science Fiction.” His first major novel, “The Space Merchants” (1953), written with Cyril Kornbluth, was built around the idea that the values of business and advertising had replaced governments, creating disastrous effects. But he may be most important as a pioneer of what has been called the “anti-utopian” branch of science fiction - or “sf,” as its aficionados often call it - in which an outwardly well-organized society disintegrates from internal pressures, rivalries and greed. Pohl touched on many common sci-fi themes in his writing: interplanetary travel, overpopulation, cryogenic preservation, cities under domes, parallel universes and colonies on Mars.

He won science fiction’s Hugo and Nebula awards multiple times and in 1980 received an American Book Award (later called the National Book Award) for his novel “Jem: The Making of a Utopia,” about the efforts of three groups of people to survive after colonizing another planet.Īward-winning science fiction author Frederik Pohl, in a 1987 photo, wrote more than 65 novels and 30 collections of short stories. Pohl’s greatest achievement came through his own writing, which included more than 65 novels and 30 collections of short stories, many written with co-authors. He was a lifelong friend of the prolific author Isaac Asimov and, as an agent, helped publish Asimov’s first novel, “Pebble in the Sky,” in 1950.īut Mr. He published his first work - a poem under an assumed name - in 1937 and worked as an agent and editor before he turned 20. Pohl had been a presence in science fiction since the 1930s, when he began to organize fan clubs and conventions.

Pohl’s Web site noted that he “went to the hospital in respiratory distress.” His death was confirmed by a granddaughter, author Emily Pohl-Weary.

Frederik Pohl, who helped shape and popularize science fiction as an influential agent, editor and award-winning author, died Sept. 2 at a hospital near his home in Palatine, Ill.

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