Richard A. Lupoff

Richard Lupoff
Richard Lupoff
Born	21 February 1935 (age 91); Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	22 October 2020 (aged 85); Oakland, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Author, editor, technical writer
Years active	Early 1950s–2020
Known for	Science fiction and mystery fiction; expertise on Edgar Rice Burroughs; co-editor of All in Color For a Dime

Richard Allen Lupoff (February 21, 1935 – October 22, 2020) was an American author renowned for his contributions to science-fiction and mystery fiction, including novels, short stories, and edited collections. He was widely acknowledged as an authority on Edgar Rice Burroughs and maintained a keen fascination with H. P. Lovecraft. Alongside Don Thompson, Lupoff co-edited the nonfiction anthology All in Color For a Dime, which is regarded as the pioneering work in comic book criticism, followed by its sequel, The Comic-Book Book.

Early life and education

Lupoff was born in Brooklyn, New York, into a Jewish household. He pursued higher education at the University of Miami while continuing his freelance journalism endeavors that had begun when he was just 14 years old.

Technology career

Following the completion of his academic studies and military service, Lupoff spent five years employed as a technical writer at Sperry Univac. Subsequently, he dedicated seven years to IBM, where his role involved overseeing the production of informational films. Economic downturns in the late 1970s prompted him to temporarily reenter the technology sector.

Writing career

Lupoff’s literary journey commenced within the science-fiction fandom community during the early 1950s. He produced eight mimeographed editions of his fanzine titled SF52 and later contributed reviews to Algol. In the early 1960s, he collaborated with his wife Pat and Bhob Stewart to co-edit Xero, which featured contributions from notable figures such as Dan Adkins, James Blish, Lin Carter, Avram Davidson, L. Sprague de Camp, Roger Ebert, Harlan Ellison, and Frederik Pohl. Xero earned the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine. A collected edition titled The Best of Xero, co-edited with Pat Lupoff and introduced by Roger Ebert in 2004, also received a Hugo nomination.

At Canaveral Press, Lupoff served as editor for works by Edgar Rice Burroughs and authored his inaugural book—a biography entitled Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure—in 1965 upon the publisher’s invitation.

Science fiction

Lupoff’s fiction writing debuted in 1967 with the novel One Million Centuries. By 1970, he transitioned to full-time authorship. His later novels include Sacred Locomotive Flies (1971) and Into the Aether (1974). Over his career, he published more than fifty books encompassing fiction, nonfiction, and memoirs, occasionally using pseudonyms such as Addison E. Steele for Buck Rogers novels and Ova Hamlet for satirical works gathered in The Ova Hamlet Papers (1975). His narratives frequently employed pastiche and incorporated portrayals of fellow writers and acquaintances as characters.

Among his significant works are the two-part series comprising Circumpolar! (1984) and Countersolar! (1987). The novel Sword of the Demon garnered a nomination for the 1977 Nebula Award; acclaimed author Robert Silverberg described it as "a strange and austerely beautiful fable that cuts across genre lines."

His short story "12:01 PM" (1973) inspired two adaptations: an Oscar-nominated short film titled 12:01 pm (1990) and a television movie called 12:01 (1993), with Lupoff making cameo appearances in both. The story’s central time loop concept bore notable similarity to the 1993 film Groundhog Day. After legal negotiations concerning potential idea infringement, Lupoff and director Jonathan Heap chose to withdraw their lawsuit against Columbia Pictures.

His novelette "After the Dreamtime" and short story "Sail the Tide of Mourning" received Hugo Award nominations in 1975 and 1976 respectively. In collaboration with artist Steve Stiles, Lupoff co-created the graphic novel The Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and his Incredible Aether Flyer, which originated as a comic strip series in Heavy Metal. This work is recognized as an early example of steampunk.

Mystery

After resuming his career as a full-time writer, Lupoff concentrated on the mystery genre, beginning with The Comic Book Killer (1988), which led to multiple follow-up novels. His inaugural mystery short story anthology, Quintet: The Cases of Chase and Delacroix, was released in 2008.

Radio program: Probabilities

Starting in 1977, Lupoff co-hosted a literary review and author interview broadcast on Pacifica Radio's KPFA-FM based in Berkeley, California. The show originally bore the title Probabilities Unlimited before evolving into a weekly 30-minute segment called Probabilities, which continued until 1995. That year, the program was revived as Cover to Cover. Lupoff departed in 2001 to dedicate himself fully to writing, after which the show was renamed Bookwaves. Among the distinguished guests interviewed were Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Richard Adams, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Kurt Vonnegut.

Personal life

Richard Lupoff was married to Pat Lupoff from 1958 until her passing in 2018; together they had three children. Their residences included Westchester County, Manhattan, and later Northern California. Lupoff died on October 22, 2020, in Oakland, California.

Novels

One Million Centuries (1967)
Sacred Locomotive Flies (1971)
Into the Aether (1974)
The Crack in the Sky [published as Fool's Hill (UK, 1978)] (1976)
Sandworld (1976)
Lisa Kane (1976)
The Triune Man (1976)
Sword of the Demon (1977)
The Return of SkullFace (1977)
Space War Blues (1978)
Lovecraft's Book (1985)
The Forever City (1988)
The Comic Book Killer (1988)
The Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and His Incredible Aether Flyer (1991), co-authored with Steve Stiles
Night of the Living Gator (1992)
Marblehead (Ramble House, 2006), an unabridged edition of Lovecraft's Book.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1978) [under the pseudonym Addison E. Steele]
Buck Rogers: That Man On Beta (1979) [as Addison E. Steele]

Philip José Farmer's The Dungeon (Dungeon series)

Debut novel: The Black Tower (1988)
Final installment: The Final Battle (1990)

Sun's End

Sun's End (1984)
Galaxy's End (1988)

Twin Planets

Circumpolar! (1984)
Countersolar! (1985)

Detective Fiction

The Comic Book Killer (1988)
The Classic Car Killer (1992)
The Bessie Blue Killer (1994)
The Sepia Siren Killer (1994)
The Cover Girl Killer (1995)
The Silver Chariot Killer (1996)
The Radio Red Killer (1997)
Short story collection: One Murder at a Time (2001)
The Emerald Cat Killer (2012)
Standalone work: Rookie Blues (2012)

Short fiction

Nebogipfel at the End of Time (1978/1979)

Collections

The Ova Hamlet Papers (1979)
The Digital Wristwatch of Philip K. Dick / Hyperprism" (1994)
Before ... 12:01 ... and After" (1996), published by Fedogan & Bremer with an introduction by Robert Silverberg
Included in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology Alternate Tyrants: Jubilee" (1997)
’’Claremont Tales’’ (2001)
’’Claremont Tales II’’ (2002)
’’Terrors’’ (2005)
’’Quintet: The Cases of Chase and Delacroix’’ (2006), published by Crippen & Landru
’’The Compleat Ova Hamlet’’ (2007)
’’Deep Space’’ (2009)
’’Visions’’ (2009)
’’Dreams’’ (2011)
’’Killer’s Dozen’’ (2013)
’’Dreamer’s Dozen’’ (2015)
’’The Doom That Came to Dunwich: Weird Mysteries of the Cthulhu Mythos’’ (2017)

Anthologies

’’What If? Volume 1, Stories That Should Have Won The Hugo’’, featuring works from 1952–1958, released in 1980
’’What If? Volume 2, Stories That Should Have Won The Hugo’’, published in 1981
’’The Best of Xero’’, a collection from ’‘Xero’‘, issued in 2005
’’What If? Volume 3’’, published in 2014

Nonfiction

Books

Master of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs (1965; reissued in 2005 as part of the Bison Frontiers of Imagination collection)
All in Color for a Dime (co-edited alongside Don Thompson) (1970)
The Comic-Book Book (co-edited with Don Thompson) (1973)
Barsoom: Edgar Rice Burroughs and Martian Vision (1976)
Writer at Large (1998)
The Great American Paperback (2001)
The Best of Xero (collaboration with Pat Lupoff) (2005)
WRITER Volumes 1 through 3 (2010, 2010, 2016)
Where Memory Hides: A Writer's Life (2016)

Articles

"What Remains of the Science Fiction Market?," The Writer, May 1956

Book reviews

Date	Review article	Reviewed works
December 2013	Lupoff, Richard A., "Locus Looks at Books: Divers Hands," Locus, issue 635, pp. 23, 53–54	Tales of Jack the Ripper, edited by Ross E. Lockhart, Word Horde, 2013 Paul Ernst, The Complete Tales of Doctor Satan, Altus Press, 2013

External links