Bio:William Tenn

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This is an ISFDB biography page for William Tenn. It is intended to contain a relatively brief, neutrally-written, biographical sketch of William Tenn. Bibliographic comments and notes about the work of William Tenn should be placed on Author:William Tenn.

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William Tenn is a pseudonym for Phil Klass who was born in London on May 9, 1920, and immigrated to the United States with his parents, settling in New York. He began writing in 1945 after being discharged from the Army, and his first story, "Alexander the Bait," was published a year later. His stories and articles have been widely anthologized, a number of them in best-of -the-year collections. He is a Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at The Pennsylvania State University, where he taught, among other things, a popular course on science fiction. In 1999, he was honored as Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at their annual Nebula Awards Banquet. In 2004, he was a guest of honor at the Worldcon, Noreascon 4. In 2005, his non-fiction collection Dancing Naked was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Related Book.

Tenn is best-known as a satirist, and by works such as "On Venus Have We Got a Rabbi" and "Of Men and Monsters." Most of William Tenn's writing has been collected and published by NESFA Press.

Phil Klass has been married to Fruma since 1957. They live in suburban Pittsburgh. Their daughter, Adina, lives in eastern Pennsylvania.

Home page: http://www.williamtenn.com

Phil's younger brother, Morton Klass was also a science fiction writer. (source: Introduction to In the Beginning by Morton Klass published in Great Science Fiction: Stories by the World's Great Scientists)