Arthur Porges (; 20 August 1915 – 12 May 2006) was an American writer of numerous short stories, most notably during the 1950s and 1960s, though he continued to write and publish stories until his death.

Life

Porges was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 20, 1915. After completing his B.A. and master's degrees in mathematics, he was drafted into the army for World War II and served as an instructor in California.

After the war, he taught mathematics at college before retiring to write.

Family background

Porges's father, Israel Podgursky, was born in 1885 in the Russian Empire near the eastern border of Poland. He had American associations through his two brothers—Mortimer, a lawyer in Chicago, and Dave, who worked for the Chicago Board of Education—and two sisters, Lilian and Rose, neither of whom married. Mortimer had two daughters, Lois and June. On migrating to the U.S. he changed his name to James Porges, with the new surname adopted from that of a relative, Leo Porges, who had a business in Chicago. Of this, Arthur wrote later, "I've never known if he ... picked the name out of the air, ... or had some ties to the Jewish Porges network." James Porges worked at the Bell Telephone Company in Chicago, and had four sons: Leonard, Irwin, Arthur, and Walter. Porges observed, "None had children, although all but me married rather late in life."

Bibliography

Selected short stories

  • "The Rats", Man's World (February 1951)
  • "The Fly", Fantasy & Science Fiction (September 1952)
  • "Mop-Up", Fantasy & Science Fiction (July 1953)
  • "The Ruum", Fantasy & Science Fiction (October 1953)
  • "The Liberator", Fantasy & Science Fiction (December 1953)
  • "The Devil and Simon Flagg" Fantasy & Science Fiction (August 1954)
  • "Dead Drunk" (1959)
  • "Circle in the Dust" (1960)
  • "A Specimen for the Queen" (1960)
  • "The Shadowsmith", Fantastic (September 1960)
  • "Solomon's Demon" (1961)
  • "The Rescuer" (1962)
  • "The Missing Bow" (1963)
  • "The Fanatic" (1964)
  • "Priceless Possession" (1966)
  • "Blood Will Tell" (1966)
  • "The Mirror" (1966)
  • "Swan Song", Adam's Best Fiction, ed. Thomas H. Schulz (1966)

Collections

  • Three Parodies and a Pastiche (1988)
  • The Mirror and Other Strange Reflections (2002)
  • The Calabash of Coral Island and Other Early Stories (2008)
  • The Miracle of the Bread and Other Stories (2008)
  • Spring, 1836: Selected Poems (2008)

See also

  • Fermat's Last Theorem in fiction

References

  • Arthur Porges at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction