Poul Anderson (Poul William Anderson) Biography

American writer of science fiction and fantasy, born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, educated at the University of Minnesota. A Nordic melancholy runs through much of his fantasy including his best-known works, Brain Wave (1954) and Tau Zero (1970), but The High Crusade (1960) is one of the few humorous science fiction novels of quality. Though the physical range of his science fiction is wide, including several long series set in complex universes, its protagonists share a wry pessimism about any ultimate victory; and his most famous character, Dominic Flandry, serves in defence of a doomed Terran empire. The sequence beginning with Harvest of Stars (1993) models a myth of the near future. His shorter work, much of it eloquently based on technological speculations, has been collected in many volumes, notably The Earth Book of Stormgate (1978), The Night Face (1979), and The Long Night (1983).