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Reginald Bretnor (born Alfred Reginald Kahn; July 30, 1911 – July 22, 1992) in the Russian empire. Bretnor's father, Grigory Kahn, has alternatively been described as a "Latvian Jewish banker", and some on public affairs. He wrote multiple articles, including on cats, and he translated Les Chats, the first known book about cats, written by Moncrif in 1727. a Retro-Hugo Best Short Story award nominee for 1951.

  • Little Anton (novelette, 1951).
  • Papa Schimmelhorn and the S.O.D.O.M. Serum (1973).
  • Count Von Schimmelhorn and the Time-Pony (novella, 1974).
  • The Ladies of Beetlegoose Nine (novella, 1976).
  • Papa Schimmelhorn's Yang (novelette, 1978).
  • The Schimmelhorn File: Memoirs of a Dirty Old Genius (collection, 1979).
  • Schimmelhorn's Gold (novel, 1986).
  • Nobelist Schimmelhorn (novelette, 1987).

Symposia on science fiction

Reginald Bretnor organised and edited several substantial volumes, inviting leading SF authors and science writers to contributing essays to his virtual symposia, including the following, discussing the science fiction genre:

  • Science Fiction Today and Tomorrow: A Discursive Symposium (1975, with Frederik Pohl, Poul Anderson, Jack Williamson, Ray Bradbury, Hal Clement, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Hugo Gernsback, Theodore Sturgeon, A. E. van Vogt, Cory Panshin, Larry Niven, James Blish, Harlan Ellison, E. E. Smith)
  • The Craft of Science Fiction: A Symposium on Writing Science Fiction and Science Fantasy (1976, with Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Harlan Ellison, Hal Clement, A. E. van Vogt, Frank Herbert, Jerry Pournelle, Isaac Asimov, Jack Williamson, Norman Spinrad)
  • Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future (1953, second edition 1979, with John W. Campbell, Jr., Anthony Boucher, Fletcher Pratt, L. Sprague de Camp, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip Wylie, Gerald Heard)

Further volumes Bretnor wrote or organised, again leading to substantial volumes, were on the subject of the military and war. In 1969, Bretnor published Decisive Warfare.

  • A Killing in Swords (1978).
  • The Doorstep (1957, and earlier).
  • The Man On Top.
  • Cat.
  • Genius of the Species.
  • The Past and Its Dead People (1956).
  • Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and All.
  • The Proud Foot of the Conqueror.
  • Unknown Things.
  • The Timeless Tales of Reginald Bretnor (posthumous collection, 15 short stories).

Ferdinand Feghoot series

Under the pseudonym Grendel Briarton (an anagram of Reginald Bretnor), he published a series of over eighty science-fiction themed shaggy-dog vignettes featuring the time-traveling hero Ferdinand Feghoot. Known as "Feghoots", the stories involved Feghoot resolving a situation encountered while traveling through time and space (à la Doctor Who) with a bad pun. In one example, he explained his inability to pay his dues for a Sherlock Holmes fan society by turning out his empty pockets and declaring "share lack". In his adventures, Feghoot worked for the Society for the Aesthetic Re-Arrangement of History and traveled via a device that had no name but was typographically represented as the ")(". In 1980, The Compleat Feghoot collected all of Bretnor's Feghoots published up to that time and included a selection of winners and honorable mentions from a contest run by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. The book is, as of 2006, out of print and very rare.

Other writings

Bretnor also wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter P.S. Letter, edited by Mel Tappan.

Personal life

Bretnor was married to Helen Harding, a translator and U.C. Berkeley librarian, from 1948 until her death in 1967. He subsequently married Rosalie, whom he referred to in a letter in the Southern Oregon Historical Society Archives as Rosalie McShane, although she wrote under the name Rosalie Bodrero.

Brentnor died at the age of 80, in Medford, Oregon, on July 22, 1992.

The Church of Satan website alleges that Bretnor was an early associate of Anton Szandor LaVey before his founding of the Church of Satan, and that Bretnor and other science fiction authors were members of LaVey's "Order of the Trapezoid" in the early 1950s.

See also

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  • Survivalism-->
  • Mel Tappan

Further reading

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References

  • Ferdinand Feghoot series in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
  • Schimmelhorn series in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
  • AuthorWars.com Bibliography
  • Biographical introduction to The Timeless Tales of Reginald Bretnor
  • Biographical remembrance of Reginald Bretnor by Poul Anderson
  • Bretnor Archives Virtual Exhibit by the Southern Oregon Historical Society
  • Reginald Bretnor's online fiction at Free Speculative Fiction Online